Delhi Confidential: Ministers not home

While Chowdhury was not in Delhi, Rijiju was at his North Block office.

The two junior ministers in the Home Ministry were conspicuous by their absence at the at-home function of Delhi Police Tuesday. Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and other senior Cabinet ministers were present at the function, both the Ministers of State — Kiren Rijiju and Haribhai Parthibhai Chowdhury — were absent. While Chowdhury was not in Delhi, Rijiju was at his North Block office. A day later, Chowdhury went to Rijiju’s office to have tea with him. This was the first time Chowdhury went to his office, although they sit on the same floor but at opposite ends.

CALLING IN SICK

Health Ministry’s swine flu point person — director of emergency medical response Dr P Ravindran — has only now joined work after having contracted the H1N1 influenza virus recently. He is not the only one though. He is believed to have caught the infection from Dr Shashi Khare of the National Centre for Disease Control while the two were touring Kutch together for a swine flu review.

LEGAL NEEDS

Finding itself saddled with a lot of litigation, the I&B Ministry is now moving to get its very own legal advisors who can represent the ministry and its various departments in numerous court cases going on across the country. It recently asked the Law Ministry to provide it with three legal advisors who can fight the various court cases on its behalf. I&B has also conveyed that it would employ these legal eagles on its rolls and would be paying them their salaries. “It’s just that we have so much litigation going on that a need has been felt to have our own dedicated law officers,” a ministry source said.

Depleted force

Trinamool Congress may have just achieved what its leader called a “miracle” win but the party is battling health issues in its ranks. Two of its RS MPs — D Bandopadhyay and Sukhendu Shekhar Roy — are admitted to hospital with a frozen shoulder and a heart condition, respectively. Party leader in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay has been unwell for a long time now. Rajya Sabha, where the party played a crucial role last sesssion, will therefore be missing four MPs in all — Kunal Ghosh being in jail and Srinjoy Bose having resigned.

On right track

India’s first railway university, a brainchild of PM Narendra Modi, might come up in Modi’s home state Gujarat. The latest Railway Board proposal is to set up the varsity in the National Academy of Indian Railways in Vadodara, which already has the requisite infrastructure on a 55-acre land. But confusion prevails on how many such universities are to be set up. Modi has said he wants four such universities even though the last rail budget made announcement for only one. Recently at a pre-budget meeting with Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Chairman Railway Board, Modi is understood to have specifically said rail universities are to be set up with collaboration with Chinese universities. Prabhu now has to decide on how to set up the varsities and where.

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Delhi Confidential