Kalmadis men

Suresh Kalmadi may no longer be active in Congress circles.

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Kalmadis men

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MP from Pune Suresh Kalmadi may no longer be active in Congress circles following his role in the alleged irregularities in CWG Games,but two of his aides Shehzad Poonawalla and Tehseen Poonawalla are holding fort for him in Delhi. They can be seen hanging around senior leaders at the party headquarters at 24,Akbar Road and at ministers offices and residences. They recently hosted a party in Pune to celebrate the launch of a book written by a close aide of Rahul Gandhi. While senior party leaders have woken up to the activities of these self-styled Congressmen and scoff at their presence around them,the grapevine has it that one of the brothers is under active consideration for induction in the partys minority department. It would be quite a leap for Kalmadi protege whose attempt to enter the partys war room had been successfully resisted by party functionaries.

Pulling up socks

The National Commission for Women whose reactions to incidents is often tardy seems to have acted with alacrity in the scandal involving Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal,sending off a notice to the magazine and following up on it. This is particularly interesting considering that its chairperson Mamta Sharma is away contesting the Rajasthan Assembly elections. WCD Minister Krishna Tirath,incidentally,makes little effort to conceal her unhappiness with the general functioning of the commission.

Number scare

The Central Bureau of Investigation seems to be wary of number 14 these days. Probing the coal block allocation cases,the agency registered FIR number 14 against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and a former coal secretary after which it came under a lot of criticism with even the Prime Ministers Office coming out with an explanation justifying the allocation to Hindalco. Top sleuths are now treading cautiously over a preliminary enquiry PE registered recently in Radia tapes which has been numbered PE no. 14.

Raebareli vacancy

There is a buzz among babus about the governments apparent inability to find a suitable person for a posting in Raebareli. With the Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University getting a nod,advertisements were put out earlier this month for the post of director for the project who would be of joint secretary level. However,with no responses coming by the deadline,a letter was sent last week to extend the date of applications by a month. It remains to be seen whether a suitable candidate would be found by the new deadline.