Information overload: Haryana farmer gets RTI reply in 32,017 pages

A Haryana farmer got the surprise of his life when he received the information he had applied for under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. He received the information in 32,017 pages, which arrived in 11 registered parcels that collectively weighed 160 kg. Anil Kiswan, a resident of Darba Kalan and a small farmer who owns three-four acres of land, suspected irregularities in the procurement process of mustard. Subsequently in June, he filed an RTI application with the deputy commissioner regarding the procurement of mustard and wheat and claims to have paid Rs 68,834 for the information. Best of all, the information was in English despite him requesting for it in Hindi. Last heard, he was knocking on the doors of various government officials for redressal.

No monkey business

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath | Photo: PTI

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (pictured) has an unlikely friend. At an event in Mathura, he recounted how a monkey once came and sat on his lap in his office in Gorakhpur. Adityanath gave the monkey some food and then on, his simian friend paid him a visit every other day and ate the food Adityanath offered. The moral of the story: Feed them and monkeys can be friends for life. Adityanath proffered this advise when his audience at the event in Mathura complained about monkeys creating nuisance in the area.

Smelling a rat

Last week, a Supreme Court bench said, every time narcotics cases came up for hearing, they were told that rats had eaten away drugs seized by the police. The apex court was ruling on issues related to decongestion of police stations in Delhi. Last year, police in Bihar had alleged that rats had consumed thousands of litres of confiscated alcohol. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had announced the alcohol ban soon after taking office in 2016 and in the first year of ban, state police had seized more than 900,000 litres of alcohol. At this rate, the health of rats might soon become a matter of national concern!