The city's high-profile Pandara Road area has been shorn of much of its glamour. And also some stink. After months of overstaying in the VIP bungalow, T.N. Seshan has finally moved out -- lock, stock and mridangam. The neighbours aren't complaining, though. For one, the air around the house has cleared up. They no longer have to put up with Seshan's security commandos relieving themselves on the sidewalks. The former chief election commissioner has shifted into a double-storey house in the upmarket Greater Kailash II. The security-conscious Seshan is leaving nothing to chance. Close-circuit TVs and a high-tech burglar alarm system have been installed to ensure close vigil on likely intruders. The redoubtable Seshan wasn't a safe bet for political parties in the current elections, so he was dropped like a hot potato. Perhaps, he's now realised that a safe home is a better bet. As long as he doesn't give his neighbours any cause for alarm.

Delhi: Eloquent Hints

They may have buried the hatchet temporarily, but the war of nerves between Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill and his colleague G.V.G. Krishnamurthy continues. Krishnamurthy, cut up at being left out of the poll limelight, may not have spoken out publicly, but that hasn't prevented him from dropping subtle hints about the situation at Nirvachan Sadan. Recently, a group of journalists, frustrated by Gill's refusal to brief them on reports of booth-capturing, spotted Krishnamurthy getting into his car. First he pretended he hadn't heard their queries. But when the scribes persisted, Krishnamurthy closed his eyes, then his mouth and finally his ears -- like the Mahatma's three monkeys -- and sped off in his car.

Mumbai: Blaming Them All

"The same God resides in you and me, why then be needlessly angry with me?" A quote from Shankaracharya, but would you expect it in a report on the post-Ayodhya riots? There are other surprises in the Srikrishna Commission report submitted last week to the Maharashtra chief secretary. The 700-page report apparently censures the then Congress government as much as the Shiv Sena for the violence that left 850 dead and thousands homeless in December 1992 and January '93.

Depositions by over 500 witnesses -- among them then defence minister Sharad Pawar and chief minister Sudhakarrao Naik -- have revealed much. The communal undercurrent in the police ranks, the tug-of-war between Naik and Pawar, and a blundering administration. The one-man commission, instituted in early '93, would have met sudden death two years ago had it not been for A.B. Vajpayee's intervention. The state Government had to extend its tenure. The question now is: will the recommendations be implemented? Said Justice B.N. Srikrishna, before returning to the Bombay High Court: "If nothing, the commission was a healing process" for the victims.

Mumbai: Lights out

The Queen's Necklace -- the long row of neon lights that has for decades adorned Mumbai's famed Marine Drive -- is about to lose some of its glitter. The Bombay High Court has ordered that starting February 17 all neon lights and signs in the city will have to be switched off at 11 p.m. There is a brighter side to this though: energy conservation apart, the move comes at a time when people in the Marine Drive area are increasingly complaining of health disorders caused by the harmful effects of these lights.

The high court order is a result of a petition filed by Ashwin Jalal, a resident of Chowpatty, seeking a ban on all neon signs in the city. Jalal had based his case on a study conducted by the International Institute of Sustainable Future, which concluded that sustained direct contact with neon rays could harm human beings. The constant flashing of these lights, it says, affect human beings as the light is received not only by the eyes but also by the brain. According to the study, patients who came under the effect of neon lights complained of sleepiness, fatigue, headaches and frequent mood changes. It concludes that "if one were to visit the places where the residents are disturbed by the lights, one would realise that it is insane to have such a medium of advertisement". Says Dr A.M. Shah, neurologist at Mumbai's Nair Hospital: "Changes in high illuminance could trigger epilepsy." With the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation undecided about contesting the high court order, the clampdown promises to take some shine off Mumbai's night life.

Calcutta: Arms for Free

So just who stands to gain when a foreign aircraft flies over the country dropping weapons allegedly for insurgents? As far as the unsolved Purulia arms-dropping case is concerned, it is the police. That is the latest development in a case which has baffled the CBI for over two years now. If the agency is to have its way, then up for grabs are 248 AK-47 and AK-56 rifles, a fortune for the country's security forces, especially the crack commando units. Besides, the weapons would be for free.

According to reports, West Bengal police chief Dipak Sanyal is interested in the offer made recently by the CBI. However, if the state Government does not give the necessary clearance, the CBI may make the offer to other states. Especially pleased would be the North-eastern states, whose police force constantly plead its inability to combat insurgency because of the militants' superior firepower. Seems the gun-runners did the police a good turn after all.

Calcutta: Growth Fund

West Bengal has 57 per cent of its rural population living under the poverty line -- higher than any state in the bimaru region. This startling bit of statistics, carried in the chapter on South Asia in the 1997 United Nations Human Development Report, touches scales higher than the findings of D.T. Lakdawallah, whose sample survey on behalf of the Planning Commission was released in 1995, and Abu Saleh Shariff, who conducted a national survey on poverty alleviation programmes. While Lakdawallah put the figure at 32.7 per cent, Shariff pegged it at 52 per cent.

As always, the Marxist-controlled bureaucracy of West Bengal resorts to babbling about parameters and indicators, turning the debate into an academic exercise. For one, it helps evade the crucial question: the importance of the poverty line in the economy, dominated as it is by rhetoric on land reforms, multiple cropping patterns and Panchayati Raj. A senior bureaucrat even ventured to add that the high rate of poverty actually speaks volumes about the popularity of the development programmes -- apparently, people don't wish to report progress in lifestyles because they don't want to miss out on the funds. Profound.

Jaipur: Misfired Shots

The video camera doesn't lie . Or, does it? The Jaipur Police was taken aback recently when Nalini Singh's widely-acclaimed programme Aankhon Dekhi, telecast on Doordarshan, showed clippings of illegal arms being assembled in the city to create disturbance during elections. The police soon launched an inquiry which ended up in a forgery and cheating case against Doordarshan, Singh, two local correspondents and TV Live, the Delhi-based producer of the programme. The police claims that the shots were taken at an old, licensed arms repair factory. An unperturbed Singh, now threatening defamation, says that the 40 incidents of poll disruption in the state proved her point. The police, however, is not amused and is pressing with its case against the camera-wielding "eye-witnesses".

Lucknow: The Iron Lady

She has always championed the cause of human rights and secularism in the city of nawabs. But last week, Lucknow residents realised that behind Rooprekha Verma's frail frame was a willpower stronger than steel. As the newly-appointed (acting) vice-chancellor of the violence-ridden Lucknow University, one of the first things that Verma did was to drive out the much-despised Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) from the campus saying it was an eyesore. The PAC has been camping inside the university since 1972 and yet there was no semblance of peace there. Despite demands from human rights groups, intellectuals and a large section of students and teachers, no one dared to evict the notorious police force, which had developed a nexus with mafia dons among the students. Verma, a spinster and head of the department of philosophy, is a highly-respected teacher. Aware of the nuisance value of the PAC, her request to the administration was to "remove the dreaded police force and give peace a chance on the campus". Verma's logic was simple: whenever student violence rocked the campus, it was not the PAC but the district administration and the local police who intervened and restored peace. What then was the use of converting the campus into PAC barracks? And true to her own assessment, though considered a risky one, not a leaf stirred when the PAC was packed off.

Lucknow: Anthem Logic

It might be 50 years late, but Partition seems to have finally caught up with the national anthem. Close on the heels of the controversy over the tune of the anthem and who composed it, comes another one: under scrutiny this time are the lyrics and the continued usage of the word "Sindh" in it, five decades after the province became a part of Pakistan.

The issue has been raised by the Bhartiya Krantikari Kamand Party (BKKP), which is registered with the Election Commission but is not contesting the elections. Mostly former army personnel, BKKP members first raised the issue with Shankar Dayal Sharma when he was President. Says Major (retd) G.I. Punwani, the party's state president: "It is shameful for us to continue to have Sindh in our national anthem." According to Punwani, Sharma was "shocked when we brought this to his notice" and asked the Home Ministry to look into the matter. However, he says, nothing was done.

Punwani wrote to President K.R. Narayanan this year requesting him to look into the matter. Narayanan has acknowledged the letter and a team of the Intelligence Bureau recently met Punwani to enquire about the controversy. It may not be long, it seems, before the national anthem is given a geographical second look.

Ahmedabad: Hash of A Career

Till last year, he was much sought-after in Gujarat's turbulent political arena. He went on to become a favourite of Rashtriya Janata Party leader Shankersinh Vaghela during the infamous September 1995 Khajuraho rebellion. Fortune, however, proved fickle for Bhavsinh Rathod, Independent MLA from Sami constituency in the dissolved Gujarat Assembly: he was arrested last year in connection with smuggling 1,000 kg of hashish. The case against him was registered in Ernakulam in 1989.