None wanted Raja’s home
After no one in the Union Cabinet agreed to occupy the spacious bungalow at 2A Motilal Nehru Marg because it supposedly brought bad omen to its previous occupant former Telecom Minister A Raja, now it has been allotted to Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh. The first occupant of this bungalow was none other former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi when he became an MP first in 1980. Thereafter, mega star Amitabh Bachchan also stayed in this bungalow as a member of parliament. After Bachchan, former External Affairs Minister Madhav Singh Solanki also occupied this bungalow. But after Raja’s brush with ignominy, no Minister was ready to occupy the bungalow.
For the love of birds!
A major row has erupted on the issue of the proposed reduction in the territory of the Kolleru wetland in Maharashtra, which is known to attract rare migratory birds from Siberia every year. According to environmentalists, the resizing of this important wetland on the Central Asian-Indian Flyway, will push into extinction the migratory birds. Seized with the situation, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar addressed the concern of the bird lovers through the social media. “We want both birds & people to live happily here in Kolleru. We should not create a situation that birds from Siberia come to Kolleru but people of Kolleru have to move to Siberia...”
Beaten argument
During the arguments on the validity of the NJAC law that concluded last week, the Supreme Court Bench told the Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that no senior lawyer was willing to become a part of NJAC panel at the cost of losing his lucrative practice. Rohatgi suggested to put in place a law for compulsory retirement of lawyers at 65, the age at which the judges retire. Senior lawyers Fali Nariman, KK Venugopal vehemently opposed this suggestion. The Court also felt that at 65, lawyers are ripe with talent and experience that cannot be missed. Sensing the anger of the senior lawyers on this suggestion, in a lighter vein the bench said, “At least for one day now, nobody at the Bar will speak to you.”
Burning midnight oil
The CPWD officials are burning mid-night oil to co0mplete a special task they have been assigned recently. Sources said they have been asked to provide technical input for the development of Yaliyuru village adopted by their Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu under the Sansad Aadarsh Gram Yojna (SAGY). Sources said the move follows Naidu’s suggestions to the CPWD officials during his Bangalore visit last month that the government construction agency should provide technical aid to the village to be developed as model village under its social responsibility programme.
New hope
For the last few months, the talks of Cabinet reshuffle has kept alive “hopes” of some BJP aspirants, but the speculation faded with time. The focus then shifted to the long-pending reshuffle in the party hierarchy. With that done, the left-outs are now again looking at the possible Cabinet expansion of the Modi-Cabinet after the Parliament session.