Lucknow Diary

Ignorance is not a bliss, finds Noida CEO
Ignorance is not a bliss always. Sometimes it could cost dearly. As it did with Noida Authority CEO Ritu Maheshwari who is facing a non-bailable warrant issued by Allahabad High Court which has been further upheld by the Supreme Court of India. Though Maheshwari first ignored HC summons in a contempt case, got an NBW issued against her, went to SC for relief but failed to get it. Instead, the apex court admonished her by saying being an IAS officer if she could flout the norms, she would set a wrong precedence for fellow officers and for that she would have to face the consequences of ignoring the HC summons. In brief relief, however, the apex court stayed her arrest on Tuesday.

Jail-time after imitator walks through traffic
If not Bollywood then the city of nawabs. Azam Ansari, a Salman Khan lookalike, who has made Lucknow his oyster, recently filmed a reel (a short video) near the famous Clock Tower amid a huge crowd to witness the ‘bootleg’ Salman Khan. This not only caused traffic congestion in old city areas but also landed the impersonator in Lucknow police net for disturbing peace. The cops got active after receiving a flurry of complaints from local commuters and charged him with breach of peace under Section 151. Ansari, who thinks he looks like the Bollywood hearthrob has often been sighted in the streets and landmarks of the city filming reels for Instagram. On YouTube, he has over 1.67 lakh subscribers.   

Mulayam to save face of SP amid rift
Finally, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav has stepped in to stop the ongoing Akhilesh-Shivpal rift which has snowballed into a big row. The SP patriarch has refused to acknowledge the presence of Shivpal’s party while addressing the party cadre recently. He claimed that there were only two parties – SP and BJP – existing in UP. MSY, as part of a strategy, made the claim which is also being seen as a bid to stop senior SP leaders’ defection to Shivpal’s party in the near future as a large chunk of SP leaders backs Shivpal and believes that justice should be done to him. SP aims to perform well in the various local body elections and this message by MSY will try and unite all SP leaders.

Namita Bajpai
Our correspondent in Uttar Pradesh namita.bajpai@ newindianexpress.com