Pressure on Pranab

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is under tremendous pressure from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to announce a financial package for the state.

Pressure on Pranab

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is under tremendous pressure from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to announce a financial package for the state. The senior UPA functionary is believed to be having a tough time trying to explain that such an announcement would open the floodgates for other states making similar demands. He initially tried to explain it to state Finance Minister Amit Mitra and then later to the Trinamool chief,whose party is the second largest ally in the UPA after the Congress. Banerjee,however,is learnt to be unwilling to accept any explanation,even the plea that there are no relevant provisions in the Constitution for such a package. A somewhat angry Mamata expressed her helplessness on Thursday while addressing a rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata,saying she has met the Union Finance Minister six to eight times since she had taken over,but nothing has happened so far.

Yet another scam?

After defence procurements and the 2G scam,senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan is training his guns on intelligence agencies. His first target the National Technical Research Organisation NTRO,the countrys premier technical intelligence agency set up after the Kargil war. The NTRO was the subject of a special audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General CAG and demands to make the audit report public is one of the pleas being made in an SLP filed in the apex court. Bhushan is also understood to be drafting a PIL on allegations of corruption and questionable procurements in the NTRO. Its not difficult to guess who the whistleblower petitioner working with Bhushan is it is NTROs former senior scientist V K Mittal,who at last count has filed over 100 RTI applications with the PMO and the NTRO on the going-ons inside the organisation.

Gender Parity

THE Central Bureau of Investigation CBI has finally picked up women IPS officers to be sent to the International Association of Women Police IAWP in the US. The IAWP is organising a four-day conference at Kentucky in the US between August 21 and 25 and have invited participation from major countries. After some deliberation,the CBI is learnt to have agreed on sending DIG Neeraja Gotru,a 1993 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre,currently handling a special crime unit in CBI. The agency has now sought clearance from the Ministry of External Affairs for Gotrus visit.

Answers Wanted

THE latest terrorist strikes in Mumbai might have faded from the headlines but senior officials of the Home Ministry and Intelligence Bureau have still some answering to do. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home,headed by BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu,is planning to summon these officials,possibly next week,to get a briefing on the incident. The committee had questioned Home Ministry officials for the recent goof-up in a list of wanted terrorists that India had handed over to Pakistan earlier this year,and also after the 26/11 terror strikes on Mumbai.

New Hope for JindAl

CONGRESS MP Naveen Jindal was most probably one of the reasons for former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh shooting off letters to the presiding officers of Parliament some time back complaining against MPs lobbying for projects. Ramesh had also refused to give the industrialist an appointment. But with a change of guard at the ministry,Jindal is probably hoping that Paryavaran Bhawan would not be as unwelcoming now. He called on new minister Jayanthi Natarajan a couple of days ago to give her his good wishes.