Khati Corner

Artful dodger
Recently, during a media interaction, BJD MLA Arun Sahoo was asked about the split voting by party MPs in Rajya Sabha on the Waqf Amendment Bill. Sahoo acted as if he did not know anything about the issue. He also feigned ignorance about the meeting between Rajya Sabha member Muzibulla (Munna) Khan and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik on the matter. To evade a barrage of questions, Sahoo clarified that he has not been using social media frequently, and so was not keeping track of the latest happenings on the Waqf Bill. At the end of the interaction, Sahoo, with a wide smile on his face, said, "You could not bring out a single word from my mouth on this issue," much to the amusement of those present.
Sweet post
A recent social media post by BJD MLA Arun Kumar Sahoo on Chenapoda Divas, celebrated on April 11, garnered widespread appreciation. In a two-minute video, Sahoo shared his personal connection with the traditional Odisha sweet, which enjoys considerable popularity in Nayagarh, the constituency Sahoo has served multiple terms as an MLA. In the video, Sahoo revealed that despite not being particularly fond of sweets, he consistently keeps a minimum of 1/2kg of Chenapoda at his residence. Social media users lauded Sahoo for sharing his personal insight. Many supporters urged him to promote Chenapoda extensively to enhance its recognition nationally and internationally.
Stick check
After spending more than a crore, the city's grand experiment in "eco fencing" by putting up bamboo fences along medians at Janpath is now looking more like a DIY craft project gone wrong. What was once a ‘green' initiative by Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to beautify the medians has now turned into a zigzag maze of broken poles, wild angles and rogue bamboos ready to poke your vehicle. With the bamboo fences broken at several places, sticks jutting out pose a threat to commuters.
‘Flower' power
It's not just that films take inspiration from movies. The reverse also holds true. Like Bhubaneswar police commissioner S Dev Datta Singh recently did during his media interaction following the arrest of two Bihar-based chain snatchers in an encounter in city's Badagada area. "Flower samjha hai kya..," Singh said, in an obvious reference to ‘Pushpa'. But beyond the cinematic parallel, Singh's statement also sounded a warning for miscreants not to take Odisha police lightly.
(Contributed by Team TOI)