Lucknownama

Left out
Last week’s reshuffle in the Indian Youth Congress has left none from Uttar Pradesh in the national committee. Last year,it had two men from the state. Abdul Hafiz Gandhi,a former Aligarh Muslim University students’ union president who was among the first few youths handpicked by Rahul Gandhi in 2008 during the talent hunt in the state and Nadeem Javed from Jaunpur,who had earlier served as the NSUI president,were appointed IYC secretaries. Sources said both have been told that they will be given “better responsibilities”. A week after the reshuffle,however,the suspense over their future role continues.

Who will bell the cat
The Ghaziabad Development Authority’s decision to reserve residential plots for MLAs and MLCs has touched a raw nerve among IAS and IPS officers. Several states have such schemes for IAS and IPS officers,but not Uttar Pradesh. The problem,however,is who will take up the issue with the government. The IAS and the IPS associations in the state have been virtually defunct since the present government assumed office — so much so that they have failed to hold even their annual meetings regularly.

Rising above adversity
Amit Prabhakar is a promising hockey player who has represented India in several tournaments,including SAF Games in Dhaka and Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament in Malaysia. He just returned after participating in the four-nation hockey tournament in Germany and the Test series in Belgium,France and Holland. Amit is a trainee of the Sports Hostel,Lucknow. His father,who worked in the Sports College mess,died last year. His mother works as a cook at the college and stayed there in a hut,along with Amit’s brother and sister,until principal A K Banoda allotted her a quarter last week. Amit’s story shows how some people can excel in spite of adversity. Amit says hockey is his obsession and he does not mind the hardship,but somewhere it rankles that had he been a cricketer,life would have been better for his family.