Some things never change!

The Hindu Caught in the act. Photo: C.H.. Vijaya Bhaskar Recently I read an article about how the State government has implemented an e-challan system for traffic offences and instances of corruption has become strikingly low. There was also a note that the government has approximately earned Rs. 7 crore in income in two months from driving offences. I was impressed and pleased that something good is happening.

Caught

We tend to roam around with friends hitching rides with them on their motorbikes simply because we can't afford to use another two-wheeler thanks to the rising fuel prices. It so happened one day that two of my friends and I were travelling on one bike and were caught by the traffic police. He came to us, calmly took away the bike keys and said, “Park the bike at the side of the road and come with your license.” I told my friend to take out his license, to which he shockingly replied, “I was going to apply for my LLR (Learner's Licence Rule) only tomorrow.”

We approached the police with the most innocent look on our faces. He looked pleased that we didn't have a license and used his most practised verse: “Your vehicle has been seized. Pay a fine of Rs.1500 in court and get it back.” Then commenced an hour of pleading with usual “Sorry, sir”, “We're local students”, “Please excuse us this one time” and so on... But he was unmoved.

No different

My friend suggested that we try bribing the officer. I laughed off the idea and told him that traffic police are not how they used to be and enlightened him about the new system. We tried telling the police that we're engineering students from a decent family but nothing worked. After another hour of standing helplessly looking at him, we finally resolved to call our dads. That's when the officer suddenly threw the key at us and said with irritation, “Decent family? Don't you even have 20 rupees?”

Quraishi rules out change in Uttarakhand poll date

 PTI Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi addresses a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday to announce the dates for the Assembly elections Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi on Sunday expressed the Commission’s inability to consider changing the poll schedule in Uttarakhand from the already announced January 30 as the date had been decided considering various factors including weather condition.

He claimed that the poll dates announced by the Commission was widely welcomed by the people and political parties in different States.

He was reacting to The Hindu on the concern expressed by State Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri and Congress president Yashpal Arya who claimed that there could be snow falls in some regions of Uttarakhad during January end and hence poll should be postponed to middle of February 2012.

“The Commission fixed the date after consulting experts in the Indian Metrological Department too and it was informed by them that the snowfall could be more only in the second week of February. Moreover, if the polling gets affected due to snowfall in one or two places there is always possibility of adjustment,” Mr. Quraishi said.

The term of the present Assembly of Uttarakhand ends on March 13 and Punjab on March 14 and before that the elections had to be completed, results declared and the new House needs to be constituted in both the States. There should be some time gap between the declaration of the results and constitution of the new Assembly after the new government took over.

Moreover considering the huge geographical area, electoral strength, movement of security forces and sensitive nature of Uttar Pradesh, the poll there should be held in multi phases and the polls in that State could not be held separately later as the polling/results pattern in one State might affect the election results in other States.

“So the polling and the counting of votes in all the States have to be completed by first week of March to enable the constitution of the new Assembly in Uttarakhand and Punjab by second week of March and hence the polling date was fixed as January 30 considering various aspects including examinations,” Mr. Quraishi added.

Mr. Khanduri had on Saturday claimed that it would be snowing in the mountain regions of the State throughout January and sought postponement of the poll. Given the inclement weather, elections in January could have an adverse impact on voting, he had said.

Mr. Arya had said election in January was not only inconvenient for the parties and the voters but would also be a challenge for the Commission.