Nashik diary

Tit for tatWhen the tribal development commissioner, Vilas Patil, retired recently, he expected a farewell party from the staff members, a...

Tit for tat

When the tribal development commissioner, Vilas Patil, retired recently, he expected a farewell party from the staff members, as is the custom. However, he found to his dismay that there were no festoons nor balloons nor any gathering to honour him. Nor were there any speeches in his praise or bouquets in his honour. The reason was that the staff union had decided against organising a farewell ceremony for Patil because when an additional tribal commissioner, Jehangir Valvi, had retired last year, Patil had uttered some words, which had hurt the staff members.

Getting carried away

Politicians play to the gallery and sometimes get carried away by the need to please party workers and stay in limelight. And when they are in power, their action attains a different dimension. So it seemed when State minister for public health, Eknath Gaikwad, joined Congressmen in burning copies of a morning newspaper for including Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in the list of 100sexiest Indian women of the century. Gaikwad was in Nashik for a convention organised by the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. The same day the local unit of the Congress had organised an agitation at the newspaper office. Gaikwad, instead of restraining the workers from ransacking the newspaper office, joined them in burning copies in protest.

It would have been more appropriate if as a minister Gaikwad had instead initiated legal proceedings against the newspaper on behalf of the government in a peaceful manner, without taking the law in his own hands.It goes without saying that the same Congressmen would have danced with joy if Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi or any other Congress leader would have been included in a list of the 100 most handsome Indian men of the century.

Sleeping on tribal welfare

The tribal development department recently witnessed the suspension of additional commissioner Amitabh Joshi for his alleged irregularities in recruitments and transfers, indicating thestate of things in the commissionerate.

Sometime back, the commissioner, Vilas Patil, retired and was succeeded by N Arumugam. The new commissioner made his first public appearance at a function organised by the tribal department8217;s staff union by falling asleep on the dias, inviting giggles from the audience. It was at the same function that the tribal development minister, Madhukar Pichad, made a series of announcements for tribal welfare. The commissioner napping away while the function was in progress just indicated the state of things to come.

8211;RAKSHIT SONAWANE