Delhi Confidential: Renewed Push

MP Ramesh Bidhuri may seem aggressive inside the House, but he showed his soft side last week when he picked up a pigeon injured by a vehicle at Gate No 4 of Parliament House.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi coming out of her residence to meet the people on her birthday in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Source: PTI)

Sonia Gandhi wants women MPs of her party to raise their voice to bring the Women’s Reservation Bill out of deep freeze. During an informal chat with some MPs about the ongoing protest at Jantar Mantar by some groups seeking passage of the Bill, Sonia is learnt to have told them that the issue should reflect in Parliament as well. Accordingly, women MPs of the Congress plan to meet Tuesday. The Bill was passed in Rajya Sabha in 2010, but it is yet to come up for discussion in the lower house.

Feathered Friend

MP Ramesh Bidhuri may seem aggressive inside the House, but he showed his soft side last week when he picked up a pigeon injured by a vehicle at Gate No 4 of Parliament House. The southwest Delhi MP took the pigeon to hospital for treatment. He deputed one of his staffers to take charge of picking up the pigeon from the hospital and bringing it back to the Parliament House courtyard so that it is not separated from its family.

Arriving Early

The Railway Board got a new member as Mohammad Jamshed, General Manager, NEFR, took over as Member (Traffic) from Guwahati. Jamshed would have taken over at the end of next month, but since the Rail Budget preparations are underway, Suresh Prabhu apparently wanted a full-time Member (Traffic) — the chief of all operations and earnings — to join sooner rather than later. The incumbent, Kundan Sinha, is an Additional Member looking after the top post. All eyes are now on Sinha to see whether he goes back to his old office or goes on leave before retiring at the end of January. This is because after presiding over the top office, it is considered unconventional to go back to the office of a subordinate post.

Trouble With Boss

Some bureaucrats are known to be hard taskmasters who routinely pull up subordinates for lapses. But an unusual scene created flutters in the corridors of North Block Monday when a section officer came out howling from the office of an Additional Secretary of the DoPT. With tears streaming down his cheeks, he was consoled by another DoPT staff member as he complained about his superior’s attitude towards him.

Cracker Of A Chapter

Diwali is long gone, but in the wake of the debate on pollution and measures to curb it, the UGC has shot off a notice to vice-chancellors of all universities directing them to include a compulsory chapter on the “ill-effects of fireworks” in the environmental science curriculum. The higher education regulator also wants universities to depute groups of students and teachers to undertake educative workshops in surrounding areas to spread awareness against fireworks.

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