Mumbai Underground

With the charge of Mumbais roads and stormwater drains under his belt,additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta is most wary of journalists in the months preceding and during monsoon.

Media shy

With the charge of Mumbais roads and stormwater drains under his belt,additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta is most wary of journalists in the months preceding and during monsoon. When spotted by scribes in the corridors of the BMC head office,Gupta is often seen sprinting to his office to escape the questions posed to him. Last week,two journalists finally caught the evasive AMC for a little chat. Im in a terrible hurry I really dont have the time right now for questions, said Gupta,dashing towards his office. But sir,we just wanted to say hi! said the scribes. Oh,in that case,hello! It is such a pleasure to meet you,how are you? said a visibly relieved Gupta.

Top secret

It is not just the media and public that is being kept in the dark over the inauguration date of the showpiece Eastern Freeway. Even the MMRDA,which was the implementing agency for the project,is clueless about when the freeway might be opened and who the guest of honour at the inauguration will be. Earlier,Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan himself was to open the freeway to traffic,but now the political class wants to get a high-profile person from the Centre to raise visibility of the project. While officials and the media are busy conjecturing that the freeway could be inaugurated by either Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Minister for Urban Development Kamal Nath or even Congress president Sonia Gandhi,no one,not even MMRDA,seems to be sure.

Runaway wedding

DESPITE the efforts of Mumbai Police to scuttle the wedding ceremony of two donkeys planned by farmers at Azad Maidan,over 150 farmers from Solapur were able to hold the ceremony discreetly on Wednesday by remaining untraceable. Seeking the just and natural release of drinking water from Ujjani Dam,Solapur farmer Prabhakar Deshmukh was on a 121-day protest at Azad Maidan that had reportedly prompted Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar to make his infamous remarks. Around 50 policemen were deployed at Azad Maidan to prevent the donkey wedding. However,around 4 am Wednesday,Deshmukh,along with ten farmers,jumped over the maidan fences and escaped. Policemen began looking for them using mobile locations. But the farmers switched off their cellphones,removed the SIM cards and secretly gathered in front of Poddar College in Dadar. They brought a couple of donkeys and got them married in a bid to make the rain Gods bless the state. Deshmukh claimed heavy rain lashed parts of Solapur on Wednesday itself.

PM is missing CM

PRIME MINISTER Manmohan Singh has always had a special relationship with Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan. They worked together in the AICC Economic Cell when the party was not in power in the Centre between 1998 and 2004. Later,Chavan was minister of state in the Prime Ministers Office. During his Delhi visits,Chavan ensures that he meets the PM about state matters. But often when official discussions are over,the PM generously reminds his colleague about the PMO days. At the end of one such recent conversation,the PM reportedly told Chavan,I am really missing you. Chavan acknowledged the compliment with a smile. Congress leaders in AICC and MPCC admit,The PM and CM have a personal rapport. But it should not be construed in the political sense of his shifting to Delhi. He is going to stay in Maharashtra. Notwithstanding,PM has hinted at a reshuffle in Delhi soon.

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Mumbai Underground

With the charge of Mumbais roads and stormwater drains under his belt,additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta is most wary of journalists in the months preceding and during monsoon.

With the charge of Mumbais roads and stormwater drains under his belt,additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta is most wary of journalists in the months preceding and during monsoon.