Kolkata Confidential

Will Gandhi speak?
The million dollar question for mediapersons nowadays is whether Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi will speak his mind at the tea party that he is hosting on December 13,the day his tenure at Raj Bhavan in Kolkata comes to an end. Since the Governor never gave any interview to any journalist during all these days,the 30-odd journalists who have been invited for the party are keeping their fingers crossed.

Out of closet for tribals
Of late,any discussion on allocation of funds for the tribal areas rarely goes without criticism of government’s neglect of tribal areas. During a recent discussion on Tribal Sub Plan in Kolkata,where the government and Planning Commission had invited various organisations and individuals with experience of working in tribal areas,things turned out to be tougher for officials to handle. They lashed out at the Centre and the state for deprivation of these areas and rise of Naxalism. People came with reference of funds being deviated to other areas. Even certain secretaries came out in open saying that despite allocation made for the tribals and SC/ST,they were not allowed to work in their state.

One more to Trinamool
Nothing attracts like success,and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is soaking it in. The grapevine has it that the lone Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MP in the Rajya Sabha,Sabir Ali,has expressed his willingness to merge with the Trinamool,and Mamata has indicated she has no problems. According to her aides,apart from increasing the strength of her party in the Upper House,Ali’s presence in the Trinamool would also send a positive signal to her Muslim vote bank. Mamata is learnt to be verifying the antecedents of the MP from Bihar before taking the final call.

As for LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan,the fall from grace post his poll rout continues.

New Mamata promise
Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee has hit upon one more idea to reflect her concern for the common man. Her minister has revived a plan originally initiated during Lalu Prasad Yadav’s term,and amended it a little,to provide reverse osmosis-purified drinking water to the public through vending machines at railway stations. However,against the original plan which envisaged selling this water at Rs 3 per litre,the Railways now wants this facility to be provided free of cost to all rail users. To make up for the cost,private parties will be allowed to set up and operate these machines and to earn revenue through commercial advertising on the machines. Taking no chances,the Railways have specified that the ads put on these machines will have to be cleared by Railway authorities and should not have content (like airline ads) that may affect its business.