Delhi Underground

Missing members
Signs that trouble is brewing in Sheila Dikshit’s Cabinet — after her dream run was thwarted with a defeat in the by-elections — were evident on Friday evening when the Chief Minister convened the Cabinet on a short notice to discuss Commonwealth Games. At 4.30 pm,when the meeting was to begin,only two ministers were present — Labour Minister Mangat Ram Singhal and Health Minister Kiran Walia. While,Finance Minister A K Walia had left for Vaishno Devi a day before,Food and Supplies Minister Haroon Yusuf was also away on a pilgrimage to Ajmer and PWD Minister Rajkumar Chauhan had dashed off to Jhandewalan temple just minutes before the Cabinet meet. Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely,meanwhile,was sitting in his cabin,unaware about the meeting and had to be summoned.

In whose court is the ball?
Noted alumni can sometimes be a hindrance; that is what Modern School authorities realised at the Delhi High Court. In court against a government notification on fee hike,the school’s petition was transferred from one court to the other as many of the noted judges seemed to be associated with the school in one way or other. The school’s petition first came up for hearing before the Chief Justice’s court,but was suddenly transferred because the chief’s companion judge,Justice Manmohan,happened to be a former student of the school. The petition had an even shorter life at the second court where it came to light that the senior judge,Justice Mukul Mudgal,was once a lawyer for the school. The Modern School case is currently with Justice A K Sikri and is yet to be heard. 

Finders keepers
Every day the Delhi Airport operator has with itself expensive goods like mobiles and laptops,which the passengers often lose at the airport or inadvertently leave behind,along with items such as perfumes,etc,which the passengers have to remove from their hand baggage due to security reasons. While the airport authorities are supposed to auction the goods every three months and open it to general public,the auctions are never announced. Some senior officials claim that these goods — whose value at times runs into lakhs of rupees — are often taken away by the airport staff and never reach the manager,with whom all lost-and-found goods are meant to be deposited.

Word wise
At the recently concluded Urban Habitat Summit,Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit blamed the city’s bureaucrats for the government’s delay in switching to sustainable technologies when building roads. “It is very hard to hit a bureaucrat on the head,” Diskhit quipped as she explained how she was unable to get bureaucrats to shift to using recycled plastering for laying roads. She,however,quickly made up adding,“with all due respect to the bureaucrats — past and present — here. Doing anything without their support would be impossible.”