Journalism of Courage
Foreign Tours
Even as the drama over ASIs Unnao excavation continues to play out,the top brass of the Culture Ministry has been occupied with engagements abroad. Minister Chandresh Kumari Katoch is headed to Port of Spain via USA,Secretary Ravindra Singh is in Peru and set to go from there to Cuba while Additional Secretary K K Mittal returned from Turkey only on Thursday. All these visits are apparently related to various festivals of India. Meanwhile,the PMO is said to be keeping itself abreast with developments related to the Unnao treasure hunt seeking status reports every few days.
Awaiting Go-ahead
Even as Congress ministers make a vocation out of Narendra Modi-bashing,Minority Affairs Minister K Rehman Khan has been missing in action. Khan,who is usually very vocal on issues related to Modi,is suffering from a heart ailment and recently underwent an angiography. Last heard,he is awaiting doctors clearance before resuming his official and political duties.
Welcome Facelift
For years,the imposing South Block building that houses the Defence Ministry had been tough to get in,specially for those with disabilities. The entrance involves navigating a flight of stairs before stepping in from one of its many gates. Now,with directions from the Urban Development Ministry,work has started to make at least two of its gates disabled-friendly and ramps and railings are being put up. The offshoot of this is that perhaps the rather drab gate no 2,which is used by state guests to get in after the ceremonial guard of honour,will get a facelift and present a better picture to visiting dignitaries.
Festival Time
Bollywood is not known to have a healthy crop of childrens films but the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is banking heavily on the mainstream Hindi films industry to grab eyeballs for the International Childrens Film Festival India to be held in Hyderabad from November 14-20. Promos featuring Salman Khan have been prepared to garner publicity for the festival on social networking sites. Ranbir Kapoor,too,has been roped in as has been Gulzar.
Pay Matters
General elections are still a few months away,but Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar seems determined to generate a rich amount of goodwill among the staff before getting out of office. She had earlier appointed an in-house officer as the Lok Sabha secretary-general. Now,she has accepted the recommendations of a committee to address long-standing demands of Lok Sabha TV staff regarding their pay-scales. The highlight of the new pay structure is that the lowest-paid employee gets a 40 per cent increase,while the top-rung get a raise of just two per cent.
