Himachal confidential

Naming officers

After having been put in a tight spot over grant of licences to mega builders for private housing projects,Housing Minister Mohinder Singh could not hide his frustration. He washed his hands of from the ‘scam’,as the Congress has called it,by passing the buck to a senior bureaucrat who happened to be the CM’s choice to keep some checks on the minister’s controversial actions in the department. During his previous term,Singh was made to resign after half-a-dozen BJP MLAs and ministers sought his sacking.

Birthday blues

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has never been so enthusiastic about his birthday celebrations as this time. Barring a few occasions,most of his birthdays (April 10) have normally been a low-key affair,or limited to closed-door religious ceremonies at ‘Oak-Over.’ However,a few days back when his Horticulture Minister Narinder Bragta brought a bus-load of supporters from the apple-belt to invite Dhumal to Kotkhai,his smiles had no bounds. After all,the apple-belt — he knows very well — is a hotbed of the state’s politics in the old Shimla region. So,Dhumal doesn’t mind grooming Bragta and sanctioning new projects to counter some of the strongest Congress leaders here. A 67-kg ‘ladoo’ — matching his age (67 years) — was what Bragta supporters offered Dhumal to eat and share with others at the function.

Welcome silence

At the end of the nearly 40-day long Budget session of the Vidhan Sabha,CM Prem Kumar Dhumal and his Cabinet had something to cheer them up. The governmentmay have faced an aggressive Opposition inside the House but outside it was at unusually quiet scene — no demonstrations,protests or pickets!