Good Host CULTURE MINISTER Mahesh Sharma seems to be working hard to be a people’s minister. Being the MP of Gautam Buddha Nagar in the outskirts of Delhi, Sharma gets a lot of visitors daily. To treat them properly, the main chamber of the minister’s office has been turned into the visitors’ room and Sharma has made the adjacent room, otherwise used as resting room for the minister, his office. His staff say Sharma is one of the very few ministers who make it a point to receive MPs or MLAs who come to visit him at the door and accompanies them to the exit. The Contradiction AT A time when the HRD Ministry is gunning for Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta, the UGC, intriguingly, sent a circular that, in effect, lifted a restriction imposed on him. The government last year asked the university to stop all appointments till charges of irregularities against Dattagupta were probed. The V-C, eventually, was found guilty of making irregular appointments. Even as the government lay ground for his sacking, the UGC recently sent a circular to Visva-Bharati, asking it to fill up all vacancies. On discovering the contradiction, UGC Chairman Ved Prakash immediately retracted the circular. Getting A Facelift THE CORRIDOR of the Law Ministry is suddenly looking better. The reason is that, following sustained efforts by Law Secretary P K Malhotra, the ministry has finally put up interesting pictures, portraits and quotes on the walls of the corridor of the fourth floor of Shastri Bhawan. Among other things, there is a preamble of the Constitution, pictures of members of the Constituent Assembly and quotes from proceedings of the Constituent Assembly. For Hawkers’ Sake WITH BOTH licensed and unlicensed hawkers earning their livelihood on railway premises wanting more access, the Railways Ministry has now decided to come out with a comprehensive policy that provides “social justice to the hawkers” and ensures that their presence does not lead to “operational bottle-necks”. With passenger associations seeking regulating of unauthorised hawking, the ministry has now sought suggestions from all stakeholders to firm up a policy.
