Hard Lessons

We are very capable of setting up a university in Motihari on our own and will manage well enough without the Centres aid, the CM is learnt to have written.

Hard Lessons

The HRD ministrys decision to locate a Central university for Bihar in Gaya and not Motihari has Chief Minister Nitish Kumar fuming. So when HRD Minister Kapil Sibal suggested that his ministry would be ready to help with funds to set up a state university at Motihari,Nitish was far from amused. He shot off a letter to Sibal,accusing him of double standards and asserting that his state did not need any funds from the Centre. We are very capable of setting up a university in Motihari on our own and will manage well enough without the Centres aid, the CM is learnt to have written.

BUDGET TRAVEL

It is that time of the year when almost all government departments work overtime to exhaust the budget allocated to them for the year. Engaged in a similar exercise,the Press Information Bureau PIB has been desperately seeking the help of journalists in bailing itself out. With the financial year nearing its end,and large amount of funds lying unutilised,the PIB has been busy organising field trips for journalists in the name of showing them implementation of various government programmes. Several such trips have already happened in the last few days while some are planned for the next few days. For PIB,the exercise has become all the more urgent because once the Parliament session begins on March 12,it would no longer be in a position to spare its manpower for such outstation trips.

MEDICAL PROBLEMS

HEALTH Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad seems to be caught in no-mans land. On one hand,he has been receiving a barrage of requests from people in Jammu and Kashmir for facilitating their treatment at AIIMS. On the other,he is expected to understand the institutes constraints and the unending pressure on its staff and resources. As a possible way out of this dilemma,Azad is believed to be looking at PGI Chandigarh as an alternative where he can divert requests from his home state to. The problem,however,is that there is no direct rail link between Jammu and Chandigarh. Last heard,Azad was planning to write a letter to Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi to announce a Jammu-Chandigarh train in the upcoming Rail budget.

PAPER TIGER

TILL not very long ago,it was keenly awaited by those wanting to know Congress president Sonia Gandhis mind on burning issues. Congress Sandesh,the ruling partys mouthpiece,is finding few takers nowadays. Sonia has discontinued her Letter to Congresspersons,which used to give a glimpse of her mind on important issues. Edited by Girija Vyas,the magazine,has little more than an archival value as it contains old speeches and transcripts of press conferences of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and also those of party spokespersons. The latest issue is marked by well-displayed photographs of the Editor.

TESTING TIME

THE Prime Ministers Office has begun preparing for what is certainly going to be a stormy budget session of Parliament. As happens before the start of almost every Parliament session,the PMO has asked the various ministries and departments to flag issues specifically those that have been in the news recently and the ones that are controversial related to their domain that are likely to be raised in Parliament. They have also been asked to send relevant information related to each of these issues. The ministries have to send their responses latest by Sunday.