Early exit
Given the work load, many judges of the Supreme Court may want to call it quit at 62. last week, Justice RM lodha, who is tipped to become Chief Justice of India next year, made this point when he said, “I would suggest bringing down the retirement age from 65 to 62.” According to him, “Every year that a SC judge works, he loses three months of his life.” When told about US Supreme Court judges, who enjoy a lifelong tenure, Justice lodha replied, “They decide 100 cases in a year which we decide in two days.”
Private IAS
The IAS lobby is a worried lot these days over a possible encroachment of their undisputed territory. Grapevine has it that there is likely to be lateral entry of private sector top officials in the IAS cadre. If a top official from the PMO is to be believed, the economist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved postings of “private persons” with eminence in the field of economy, finance, agriculture, education, science etc as Additional Secretaries and Joint Secretaries for a limited period.
Poachers nabbed
In a bizarre incident that makes a complete mockery of the conservation process in the country, some endangered Great Indian Bustards were not only poached but even their meat was cooked and relished by the poachers. Worse still, the entire process was video-taped much to the delight of the poachers. The incident occurred in Rajasthan where the GIB has been given the status of State bird. This was not all. After the CD containing the video-footage was somehow recovered by a wildlife lover and sent to the forest department, the local officials sat over it for two weeks. It was only at the behest of the senior officials that the three poachers were nabbed this week.
Duplicate Katju
Twitter account holders were in for a jolt when someone masquerading as Press Council of India Chairman Justice Markandey Katju started tweeting against all and sundry. The duplicate Katju took on VIPs like Javed Akhtar, Digvijay Singh and other secularists on the twitter. The fake Katju also attacked the mediapersons on twitter by abusing and finding faults in their reporting style. However, the original Katju’s account mKatju is silent for the past three months.
PC vs Nachiappan
Congressmen in Tamil Nadu are trying to know how Sudarshan Nachiyappan, a bitter rival of Finance Minister P Chidambaram, entered into the Cabinet in the recent reshuffle. For the past two decades, both leaders from Sivaganga are not on talking terms, and their rivalry reached peak when Chidambaram lost to Nachiyappan in 1999 lok Sabha elections. Being MoS in Commerce and Industry, Nachiyappan has to interact with the Finance Ministry. But Tamil Nadu’s Congressmen certify they have not yet started talking.
Azad’s gesture
Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who can’t find time to attend all health-related functions in the Capital, surprised one and all when he recently turned up to inaugurate an event organised by socialite Vandana luthra, the founder of beauty and slimming brand VlCC. In fact, last year itself Azad had nominated luthra, who bagged Padma award 2013, as a non-official member of the general body of the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, an autonomous body of the Health Ministry.
Defiant CPWD
Often criticised by its boss Kamal Nath for shoddy and sloppy work, the CPWD seems to be expressing its grouse by not ‘obeying’ the Urban Development Ministry’s orders. It is learnt that in one instance, despite clear-cut directives by the Ministry for not allowing study leave to an official for pursuing the PhD, the CPWD went ahead with the grant of ‘other’ kind of leave to the officer. The Ministry has now issued stern warning to the construction agency to not violate its orders.
Deserted CBI
A number of senior CBI officials from the headquarters attended the agency Director Ranjit Sinha’s daughter Rudrani’s marriage with Chhattisgarh cadre IAS officer Avnish Kumar Sharan in Patna on Saturday. A host of IAS and IPS officers from different police organisations as well as several politicians from Bihar also made it to the function. No surprise, the CBI headquarters here wore a deserted look on Saturday.
Mid-stream Advani
As chief guest at a function to launch a book in the national capital last week, BJP leader lK Advani had the audience in splits with his remarks, “I am more of a blogger now than a political activist. Hence some people say in sympathy that I have been left mid-stream”.
In Jaitley’s chair
Video footage of a recent BJP Parliamentary Board meeting revealed that Gujarat CM Narendra Modi was sitting on Arun Jaitley’s place — on the left of lK Advani — during the meeting. Party insiders claim Jaitley was “late” by two minutes and when he came Modi had already occupied his seat. The same sitting arrangement was seen in the next meeting also, but party leaders did not explain whether Jaitley was late, again.