Delhi Confidential: Sweet Spot

Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been undertaking a pilgrimage to the famous Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra’s Ahilyanagar district for the past several years on New Year. A unique highlight of these visits is his halt at a roadside shop to enjoy fresh sugarcane juice. This year too, Chouhan visited the temple along with his wife and during his stop at the shop he even tried his hands on the traditional sugarcane crushing machine pulled by two oxen. Interestingly, the shop is named “Mama Raswanti”, though not inspired from Chouhan’s popular sobriquet “mama”.

Back in Capital

Following a major bureaucratic reshuffle, 1994-batch IAS officer Sanjeev Khirwar is set to return to the Capital in a senior role. An AGMUT-cadre officer, Khirwar last served in Delhi as Principal Secretary (Revenue) and Divisional Commissioner. The MHA had moved him out following a controversy in 2022 when athletes training at Thyagraj Stadium were allegedly forced to wrap up early for the officer to walk his dog in the stadium. Khirwar returns to Delhi from his current posting in Ladakh, where he was posted as Principal Secretary, Health, Labour, Medical Education, Employment, Forests along with other responsibilities.