House Full

When he entered the Rajya Sabha,he decided not to shift to his South Avenue flat which became the war room for the party.

House Full

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi,who also chairs the Parliamentary Committee which produced the Lokpal report,probably wishes that he had not decided to donate his official MPs residence to the party. When he entered the Rajya Sabha,he decided not to shift to his South Avenue flat which became the war room for the party. Subsequently,when he was allotted a much larger bungalow on the peaceful and scenic Mahadev Road,he again gave it up to the party,while the Congress continued to use the South Avenue flat as well. Now that Singhvis own house in Neeti Bagh is being extensively repaired because of roof leakages,he has had to shift to a small first floor flat near his residence as the repairs will continue for almost six months.

GENDER BENDER

While the Air Force has been making much news for its encouragement to women officers under the leadership of Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne,the situation doesnt seem to have changed much for the ladies in the sky on Republic Day. The Forces marching contingent stood out as it was led by three women officers but all aircraft that participated in the prestigious flypast were flown by male pilots. Even though women pilots regularly fly helicopters and transport aircraft that formed the bulk of the flypast,they did not get a chance to show the skills on the big occasion.

WISE INVESTMENTS

THE recent investors meet in Andhra Pradesh where the state signed MoUs worth Rs 600,000 crore has given Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad,the Centres pointman on the Telangana crisis,enough reasons to feel satisfied. He seems to be in a position to tell the government that the meet was a success only because of his efforts in persuading the Telangana activists to keep their agitation low-profile. At the same time he thinks he will be able to convince the Telangana activists that their continued agitation would endanger the promised investment,some of which would obviously benefit their own region.

FALSE ALARM

THOUGH it is not unusual for operational alerts to be sounded in Pakistan due to activity in the neighbourhood,a recent scaling-up of preparedness had New Delhi foxed. The Pakistan Air Force went on high alert earlier this week,prompting appropriate responses from the Indian side. However,it is still not clear why the high alert was sounded,given that all was normal on the Indian side of the border.

MULTI-TASKING

THE recent re-assigning of duties within CBI has resulted in multi-tasking for some of its senior officers. M M Oberoi,a 1992-batch IPS officer of the UT cadre who was heading the Interpol wing of CBI,will now also be in charge of one of the economic offences wings. His batchmate Satish Golcha,who is heading an anti-corruption unit,has been given extra responsibility of a Special Task Force STF unit. Golcha,though has been given a helping hand in the form of another UT cadre officer Praveer Ranjan to run the STF unit.