If you are a bus driver in Indore, drive slow or you may have to do sit-ups

Sit-ups on bus roofs
 
Irate residents of Rau town in Indore district, fed up with buses travelling at high speed in densely congested localities, are forcing drivers to do sit-ups as punishment. A video clip of the punishment went viral on social media, in which five drivers were seen doing sit-ups on the roofs of the buses. “Drivers operating from Indore to Mhow, Manpur, and Pithampur don’t care for the lives of people. They drive at great speed in narrow congested roads as reaching a stop earlier gives them the chance to pick up more passengers,” Rau Municipality President Shivnarayan Dingu said on Tuesday. “Many people have died in accidents caused by these buses. This kind of punishment will make drivers careful in the future,” he added.

 
Securing party office
 

Against the backdrop of the agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the spectre of zealous protestors led by Opposition parties and other social organisations converging at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state headquarters in Lucknow has made its office administrators jittery. Since the state BJP headquarters faces the UP Vidhan Sabha precincts, it ends up bearing the brunt of any protest against the Adityanath government. While prohibitory orders under Section 144 continue in the state, the state BJP office has written to the district administration to enhance security at the premises. In the past, the saffron party headquarters in the state has been pelted with stones by protesters.

 
War against plastic flowers
 
While the country has put off the ban on single-use plastic (SUPs) items, some departments of the government seem to have gone overboard in their zeal to cut out SUPs altogether. The Cabinet Secretariat recently issued a directive to the Railways to get rid of or discourage the use of even plastic flowers and flower pots. This would be music to the ears of floriculture associations that have been waging a relentless war against the use of plastic flowers, which, they allege, is breaking the back of the cut-flower trade.