Journalism of Courage
This is an archive article published on September 11, 2024
Delhi confidential: Up & Down
Sources in the Road Transport & Highways ministry, however, said the MLA’s name was included in the list for a state highway project that was done by a local project director.
Chandy Oommen
After the controversy over alleged meetings between RSS/BJP leaders and top police officers in Kerala, Congress MLA Chandy Oommen’s name in the list of lawyers empanelled for National Highway Authority of India has given ammunition for the CPIM to counter the Congress’s charge of its “behind the scene connections” with the BJP.
Sources in the Road Transport & Highways ministry, however, said the MLA’s name was included in the list for a state highway project that was done by a local project director.
After the list triggered a controversy when it was put on the NHAI website, the entire panel was cancelled. Sources in the central BJP say the list of empanelled lawyers had irked some Kerala BJP leaders, too.
Push For Inputs
Taking note of delays in inputs from the government side in court cases, the Law Ministry recently asked all the ministries to designate nodal officers to brief law officers on all the necessary information about the litigation.
Legal Affairs Secretary Rajiv Mani last month learnt to have written to all Secretaries, flagging the delays and adverse orders passed by the Supreme Court due to the lack of comments or inputs from the government in some important cases.
Fait Accompli
A prominent spiritual head on Tuesday is learnt to have called some of his followers in the Delhi Police to get escort vehicles during his stay in the national capital for an event over the next three days.
Some Delhi Police officers who followed him called a senior officer in the traffic unit, requesting for an escort vehicle as desired. Soon after the officers flagged that there was no official order for the same, sources said he got a call from the police headquarters, asking him to provide a pilot vehicle to the spiritual head for the next three days.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
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