Star power

Bengali film star turned Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Paul has put up a huge glow-sign in front of his official MPs residence,portraying

Bengali film star turned Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Paul has put up a huge glow-sign in front of his official MPs residence,portraying his partys symbol and the cutout of Mamata Banerjee along with his own mugshot at 85,South Avenue. Just across the road is 181,South Avenue,the partys original office and former railway minister Mukul Roys residence,which until now had the only such glow-sign,marking the Trinamools presence in Delhi. Paul had apparently sought the advice of several senior party leaders before allowing his face to share space with Didis on the sign. His contention was that the similar sign across the road had only the party supremos cutout and not any MPs on it. He was,however,reminded of his star power and the good it could do to the party.

JUNKING SPREE

FOLLOWING an order by the Central Information Commission,the Central Board of Direct Taxes has disclosed that as many as 42 chargesheets against officers of the Indian Revenue Service had been quashed by the Central Administrative Tribunal till November 2011,just because the chargesheets did not have the signature of the Finance Minister. Since 2001,358 chargesheets have been filed against IRS officers. These related to charges of corruption,misuse of position and misconduct,and could have invited serious penalties,including dismissal. The CBDT challenged only two of the 42 orders of the CAT quashing the chargesheets,and in both these cases the CAT order was upheld.

EXPERTS chair

ACTIVIST Binayak Sens inclusion in the three-member police reforms committee of Aam Aadmi Party has given rise to speculation about whether he has formally joined the newly-registered party. AAP sources say that Sen has only been included as an expert as have been people like Justice A P Shah and Kamini Jaiswal in the judicial reforms committee. Yogendra Yadav,who is a member of the AAP national executive,convinced Sen to become a member.

PEACE PREVAILS

ALLS well that ends well. The government not only heaved a sigh of relief but projected it as a success of its diplomacy when the two Italian marines charged with the killing of two Indian fishermen returned. Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid hosted a working lunch of sorts for Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Staffan de Mistura at his office on Tuesday,where the two struck an instant chord. Later,the Italian minister sent him an SMS for the lunch and praised him for being a wonderful person.