Lying low

Hari Prasads tough talk,however,seems to have forced Jogi to do a rethink

Lying low

Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi,who is under scanner of the party high command for his alleged anti-party activities,has got some reprieve,albeit temporarily. According to Congress sources in Raipur,party general secretary in charge of the state B K Hari Prasad had visited the state on Saturday and did some hard talk with the former CM,who has been declaring party candidates giving two hoots to the high command. Hari Prasads tough talk,however,seems to have forced Jogi to do a rethink about his strategy as he was said to have reiterated his loyalty to the party adding that he would do whatever the Congress president wishes. Its anybodys guess for how long this irrepressible CM aspirant leader will keep quiet.

TACKLING TERROR

Top cops from anti-terror units will undergo a five-day workshop in Gujarat next month on prevention of suicide bombings. It aims at developing and enhancing the skills of senior level police officers engaged in anti-terror operations and has been designed by the Bureau of Police Research and Development. Two IGs from National Investigation Agency NIA Sanjeev Kumar Singh and Y K Gautam and two DIGs Sajid Farid Shapoo and Anurag Tankha along with SP Swayam Prakash Pani have been selected by the Home Ministry for the training. Significantly,joint director security,Rajya Sabha,Kumar Skanda Mani and joint Secretary security,Lok Sabha,Ajay Anand are among the 30 officials selected for the training programme.

MINISTRY DIKTAT

Secretary,Information and Broadcasting,Bimal Julka has written to his counterparts in all ministries that the annual performance and appraisal reports of all officials of the Press Information Bureau PIB,posted in different ministries,should be filled in by designated officers from those ministries and not by their reporting officers in the PIB. The Iamp;B Ministry had issued a circular along similar lines once before but that had not been followed. Iamp;B officials justify the move claiming that it was necessitated because there were complaints from client ministries about performance. This has,however,caused heartburn at the top echelons of the PIB.

SURVIVING RESHUFFLE

Usually,after every Cabinet reshuffle,some officials find themselves out of favour in the new dispensation. But,in the Human Resource Development Ministry,there are quite a few survivors. The Pallam Raju-led ministry recently ensured that two top babus who were incidentally equally valued by his predecessor Kapil Sibal stay on in the ministry well after the completion of their tenure of deputation. Jharkhand cadre IAS officer Amit Khare,a joint secretary in the HRD Ministry,has got an extension for a year. The other favourite is the 1992 batch Manipur cadre officer Vineet Joshi,the CBSE chairman who now has his tenure extended right up to November 2014.

NETWORK WOES

While the Upper House was functioning rather smoothly last week,as distinct from the turbulent proceedings in the Lower House,there was one glitch perturbing some MPs. The WiFi network was down for days causing inconvenience to parliamentarians who were said to be used to cross-checking information on the Net through their iPads,Notebooks and mobiles. Three MPs,Derek OBrien of the TMC,Vasanthi Stanley of the DMK and P Rajeev of the CPM,complained to the Secretary General of RS. Assured that the glitch would be sorted out immediately,these techno-savvy MPs are waiting for Mondays sitting to see the results.