Delhi Underground

Not in her good books
That Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president J P Agarwal do not share a cordial relationship is not news. During the preparations for the Congress plenary session,Agarwal,the reception committee chairman was camped at the site,while Dikshit made regular inspections. Agarwal’s grouse is that while all ministers,especially Finance Minister A K Walia,stopped by to greet him on several occasions,Dikshit never did. “I even sent my boys with refreshment to her (Dikshit’s) vehicle,but she just did not stop,” Agarwal was heard telling Walia.

Making hay in the sun
A recent Delhi High Court order directing the police to put up information on all FIRs online within 24 hours has rubbed the lower court staff and the police the wrong way. The option of providing unauthorised copies of the FIR to the accused for a few good bucks is no longer available to them. “Only two more months are left for them to make merry,” an advocate was heard saying,referring to the February 2011 deadline given by the High Court to implement the mechanism.

Winning the bout
Security officials had a harrowing time during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s last public event in the Capital on Thursday. With four levels of security checks,guests at the closing ceremony of the Festival of China 2010 got thoroughly annoyed; some even ended up arguing with the security personnel. One of the Chinese delegates got so enraged that after two levels of checks,he refused to comply and after a heated exchange of words,rushed into the venue with the security personnel running after him. The delegate,however,managed to enter the auditorium and plonk onto a seat,leaving the personnel embarrassed and unable to continue the argument.

The game of politics
Delhi University teachers are a very busy lot these days,and the semester system is not the reason. Elections to the Executive and Academic Councils of the university are to take place on December 24. The implementation of the semester system at the undergraduate level is not the clincher issue,as the university administration has claimed victory in Round One. Rumour,in fact,has it that the dominant organisation in the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) may suffer due to the DUTA’s perceived failure in thwarting the university’s attempts to implement the semester system.

Criticism not welcome
Delhi Education officials are unsure about the future of the nursery admission system notified last week. The criteria for selection was decided after much legal consultation and many clarifications on the Right to Education (RTE) Act from the Human Resource Development ministry. At a meeting with school principals a day after the criteria was announced on Wednesday,a top official skirted questions from journalists,disassociating himself from the admission rules. “We have left it to the schools to decide what the admission criteria will be. Only they can now talk about it,both to journalists and in the court,” the official quipped. Court intervention is likely,said another education official,since the RTE Act is loosely drafted and leaves ample scope for ambivalence. “As far as the Delhi government is concerned,we have tried our best to be on the right side of the law. The HRD ministry will have to do all the answering in the court,” the official said.