Delhi Confidential: House Guests at Guesthouse

A FOUR-DAY visit to Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh by the 13-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs ended on a happy note on Wednesday as Chief Minister Omar Abdullah hosted the members at a guesthouse deep in the forest on the outskirts of Srinagar. Sources said the committee members were pleased with the hospitality shown by Abdullah at the guesthouse, where former PMs Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru also stayed during their tenures. The committee, led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, has members including Congress’s Rajeev Shukla, BJP MP Arun Govil and others. All the members were happy with the visit to the “historic guesthouse”, said sources.

Focus on  Healthcare

AS THE BJP prepares for the Punjab Assembly polls early next year, party’s national general secretary Tarun Chugh on Friday called on Union Health Minister J P Nadda to discuss what he claimed was the “alarming” deterioration of the state’s healthcare system. Insiders said the meeting initiated by the newly sworn-in Rajya Sabha MP was likely the first step towards “a key electoral promise” that the BJP is likely to announce during its poll campaign, targeting the AAP government’s handling of the key health portfolio in Punjab.