Lying low

Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot was taken aback in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday when right at the resumption of the discussion on the Budget, Congress leader Anand Sharma raised a point of order that no cabinet minister was present in the House. Gehlot took a moment before getting onto his feet and saying, “Mere pe itna anyay kyun kar rahen hain (why are you doing such injustice to me)?” The discussion started but not before another objection was raised about the brief absence of MoS, Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman. She came back immediately.

EXTENDED DEADLINE

The Socio Economic Caste census started by the UPA government has turned out to be a far more complex and long-drawn exercise than anticipated. The ambitious census, launched in June 2011, was initially supposed to be completed by December 2011 but the deadline was informally shifted to June 2012. The government had then hoped to complete the exercise by the end of last year. The new BJP-led government has now informed Parliament that at least three more months are needed to complete the process of SECC. This would make it more than three years since the census, which will form the basis of several key welfare and poverty alleviation schemes of the government, was first initiated.

HOUSE TUSSLE

A tussle  is on between the Congress and the government over allocation of chairmanships of department-related and other standing committees of the Rajya Sabha. The Congress, which headed three standing committees, is asking for four. Besides, it wants to retain the chairmanship of the House Committee, which the government is keen to take. Chairmanship of the House Committee, which deals with allotment of residential accommodation to members, becomes important as many of the MPs of the 15th Lok Sabha and members of the Manmohan Singh ministry are yet to vacate their official accommodation. Some of the ministers of the previous government, one gets to hear, are demanding that they be allowed to continue in their official accommodation, which had been allotted to them as ministers.

RUNNING DRY

The perils of central air conditioning at central government offices were brought on full force Wednesday for visitors and employees at National Media Centre. Employees rushed to open windows supposed to be sealed as the condition turned claustrophobic in the building on a muggy afternoon. The problem was that the central air conditioning for the five-storey building inaugurated recently stopped working as there was no water to cool the cooling towers. Someone had forgotten to tell the NDMC to replenish the tanks Wednesday evening. In fact, when contacted NDMC officials were surprised as no one since the morning had informed them about the problem. Incidentally, since checking the water level is not an assigned duty for anyone, there was none to be blamed.

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