Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar recently said in a meeting with the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) that he was ready to meet the university Students’ Union but the JNUSU never turned up for the meeting. The student body said it was shocked by the Minister’s statement as it had approached the Ministry twice, only to be made to wait for hours and told that no one from the Ministry was ready to meet them. The students also requested the Minister to kindly stop ‘misguiding’ the nation and check his email instead, where the JNUSU sent over 20 mails. They also urged the Minister to check with his office about the number of memorandums sent regarding the UGC Gazette Notification of 2016.
No WhatsApp trouble
WhatsApp groups are commonly used for better coordination almost everywhere and the Delhi Police is no exception. However, with each official group comes the problem of members posting non-relevant content, which could range from jokes to unending greetings. Recently, an officer recalled how an Inspector General-ranked officer addressed the issue. Every time a junior officer sent a message that was not official, the IG would ask about crime statistics pertaining to the police station in his jurisdiction. Since this involved answering many questions, the practice managed to stem the flow of irrelevant messages. Even months later, after the IG has moved to another assignment, officers dread breaching the discipline.
‘For the sake of Delhi’
The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is mulling “prevailing upon” the Centre for “the sake of Delhi’s development”, say insiders. With an eye on the Delhi Assembly polls, which are three years away, a source said that the BJP was thinking about asking the Centre to make a provision that would allow funds to be disbursed directly to civic bodies — only if it wins the municipal polls.
At present, funds are disbursed to the Delhi government before they reach the civic bodies. The idea, said a source, is not only to be answer the “Opposition propaganda” about the alleged corruption in the civic bodies, but also seek votes based on development work.
Empty promises
Ever since the BJP came to power in Haryana more than two years ago, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has made several promises to connect Gurugram to Faridabad and Dwarka with the metro. He also repeated his promise for metro connectivity from Delhi-Sonipat, Faridabad-Gurugram, Gurugram-Bawal. Despite assurances, little has been done on the ground. While the privately-funded Rapid Metro has completed another phase, the Haryana government’s plans remain on papers. Also, over-delayed projects like the Dwarka Expressway, Southern Peripheral Road and Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway are still hanging fire. Even the much-talked about pod taxi project between Dhaula Kuan and Manesar is yet to see the light of the day. Despite all this, Mr. Khattar announced a Automated Guideway Transit (AGT) System for Gurugram earlier this month.
(Jaideep Deo Bhanj, Shubhomoy Sikdar, Jatin Anand, Ashok Kumar)
