Opinion Preserving Raj relics

Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar has cautioned ministries located in the North and South Block secretariat to preserve the heritage structures....

November 8, 2009 03:52 AM IST First published on: Nov 8, 2009 at 03:52 AM IST

Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar has cautioned ministries located in the North and South Block secretariat to preserve the heritage structures. The Cabinet passed a resolution recently saying that in future,all alterations and repairs must first be cleared by a special CPWD advisory committee. Two conservation audit committees will ensure that the advisory committees guidelines are followed.

Over the years,government departments have made all sorts of structural alterations in the historic buildings designed by Herbert Baker. Many of the original stone grills and carvings have been removed. It is suspected that some babus have even spirited away the priceless colonial fittings and sold them. In the last government,Anand Sharma as MoS in the Ministry of External Affairs had tried to raise awareness about the shabby state of sections of South Block but to no avail. Some suspect that the governments sudden overdrive on the preservation of the two secretarial blocks is because Sonia Gandhi has taken a personal interest in the matter.

Noblesse oblige missing

D Purandeshwari,Minister of State for HRD,travelled with Prince Charles and his wife,the former Camilla Parker Bowles,in a horse-driven buggy from the Windsor railway station to historic Windsor Castle,where the queen was hosting a reception for President Pratibha Patil. While the prince graciously chatted with his Indian guest,Camilla spoke only to her husband. A keen horsewoman and hunter,Camilla perhaps felt she had little in common with Purandeshwari. But there were inevitably comparisons with her predecessor,Princess Di,who had the extraordinary gift of charming every visitor to the palace.

The Lord Mayor of London in his speech paid rich tribute to the Presidents husband Devisingh Shekhawat,whom he described as an eminent scientist. Most in the Indian media party were taken aback since they know the Presidents husband as a former Congress MLA rather than a scholar. Shekhawat apparently earned his PhD in the synthesis of anti-cancer drugs from Hopkins Biochemical Institute in Mumbai.

Seering controversy

Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan did not expect the media outcry over inviting controversial seer Sathya Sai Baba to his official residence at Varsha in Mumbai for lunch. Chavan was merely following in the footsteps of his late father S B Chavan,a Sai Baba devotee,who as a Central minister had given permission for large airplanes to land at Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh,where his ashram is. Former home minister Shivraj Patil is another who makes no secret of being a Baba bhakt and keeps a life-size image of him in his office. Chavans invitation to the Baba to perform a puja at his residence was perceived as either a form of thanksgiving to his spiritual guru for the electoral victory or a prayer to use his powers to end the stalemate over government formation.

While many Maharashtrian politicians are Baba devotees,curiously he has few senior politician followers in his home state of Andhra. In Tamil Nadu,however,the atheist M K Stalin and his wife are devotees.

Ghost train timetable

The latest Indian Railway timetable includes the timing of ten trains which are non-existent. In her Budget address,Mamata Banerjee had announced 14 non-stop Duronto trains,but so far only four are operational. The promised trains have been included in the hope that they will start functioning before next April.

Neighbours envy

The IFS group housing complex in Mayur Vihar is one of Delhis most high-profile co-operative housing societies. Municipal officials are intimidated by the colonys Residents Welfare Association since the owners of the flats are IFS officers and include many ambassadors and former ambassadors. Vice-President Hamid Ansari and former secretary to the PM,Brajesh Mishra,among others,used to live there. A fortnight ago,the society had its trees pruned and the cut branches and dead leaves were strewn over 200 metres of the adjoining pavement for a week and nobody took action against the society. A notice stuck on the wall by the adjoining DDA Residents Welfare Association of Pocket IV,pleading that the IFS society should not inconvenience their neighbours,had little impact.

Neighbouring housing societies in Mayur Vihar claim cattily that one of the few times when the housing colony did not get its way was over the construction of a Metro station right at its doorstep. Delhi Metro Chief E Sreedharan was not swayed by a delegation from the IFS association urging that the Metro line and station be shifted elsewhere.

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