Literary Future

ON Saturday night,Law Minister Ashwani Kumar,who is at the centre of a political storm for trying to dictate terms to CBI on its ongoing probe into coal blocks allocation scam,hosted a dinner for a delegation of foreign jurists. At the dinner,as was expected,the subject of discussion among law officers and other guests was the affidavit filed by the CBI Director in the case and the possibility of the Supreme Court taking an adverse view of the Law Ministers action in summoning CBI officers to his office to discuss the status report. One person who was also the centre of attraction at the party was Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval,whose own conduct in telling the court that the status report had not been shown to anyone in the political executive,is also under the scanner. Raval was heard giving his side of the story to an attentive crowd.

Cancer Casualty

NEARLY three years after the National Cancer Net was conceived by the Department of Atomic Energy as a network linking major cancer centres in the country,there is little movement on it. In reply to a Parliament question last week,the Health Ministry conceded that there had been only two meetings on the issue the last one in February. Incidentally,the ministrys own cancer screening programme is in limbo as well,apparently because of lack of enough manpower.

Dual Demand

MOOL Chand Sharma,who was recently appointed as Member of the Law Commission of India,wanted the best of both worlds. While accepting his new job,he is learnt to have been keen on retaining his previous assignment,as vice-chancellor of Central University of Haryana,as well. The law professor was hoping that the HRD Ministry would be able to work out some arrangement that will enable him to continue on both the jobs. The ministry,however,is said to have gone by the rule book which does not permit holding of any additional charge by a vice-chancellor. With only eight months of his term as vice-chancellor left,a very reluctant Sharma is said to have finally chosen to move to the Law Commission where he will have a three-year term.

Car Trouble

CALL it the downside of ignoring ones VIP status. Sports Minister Jitendra Singh does not use his official vehicle and prefers to drive his private car on his own,even when he was an MoS in the Home Ministry. Recently,when he drove to Shastri Bhawan,where his office is located,an alert CISF guard,who did not recognise him,stopped him at the gate. Singh was made to wait outside the building in his car as he called up his office and got his personal staff to convince the guard that he indeed was the minister.