During one of the meetings that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with secretaries of all Central Ministries, he reportedly asked the Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, if he knew that women in small towns and villages placed their domestic gas cylinders in a horizontal position when they became empty. The Secretary promptly said he would come back with details.
Mr. Modi then told him that by placing the cylinder in a sleeping position, families ensured three more days of gas supply. An empty cylinder placed vertically still retains at least 3 p.c. of the LPG, which, Mr. Modi elaborated, meant that every 34th refill would come for free for oil companies.
Upendra Tripathi, Secretary, New and Renewable Energy, narrated this anecdote, highlighting the Prime Minister’s awareness of the practices of thrifty rural households.
A representative of a public sector oil marketing company said this may not always be true, or amount to 3 p.c. savings, although a miniscule amount of gas may remain in the cylinder if there is some wetness in it.
This reporter tried the horizontal trick at home and found that it worked. But, what of safety? Your gas dealer insists that cylinders should always be kept standing up. Take your call: safety or saving?
When the cool
let off steam
When you call stakeholders for a meeting and ask them for suggestions, their words may not be music to your ears. But that doesn’t mean you can lose your cool with them. This is what happened with Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Bharat Lal Meena recently.
He was interacting with academics and eliciting their views on how to improve the quality of higher education in universities.
The usually reticent Mr. Meena blew his top when a few research scholars suggested a change in the existing recruitment guidelines so that they could become eligible for these posts. “I am not here to listen to your nonsense,” he burst out. His anger drew equally vehement reactions from the research scholars. Vice-Chancellor in-charge S.S. Hugar intervened and kept the deliberations going. However, it took longer for the temperature to drop in the meeting hall.
Many a slip…
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who holds the Finance portfolio, was in his element at a press conference in Bengaluru soon after the presentation of the Union Budget. Just when he was totally engrossed in debunking the NDA government’s theory of development, a journalist sought his comments on Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s claims that the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme has significantly contributed to the development by increasing the number of bank accounts. Wondering if merely increasing the bank accounts would contribute to development of the country, Mr. Siddaramaiah irritatingly remarked, “Mr. Moily (M. Veerappa Moily) has only learnt the art of making statements in an attractive manner.
But, making such statements in a flowery language does not contribute to development.”
Instead of attacking Mr. Jaitley, the Chief Minister had named party stalwart, Mr. Moily. This faux pas was the subject of discussion in political circles for days.
According to some of his former political colleagues, Mr. Moily’s name could have been unwittingly picked by Mr. Siddaramaiah because in the past he would often criticise Mr. Moily for the Congress’ financial policies when he (Mr. Siddaramaiah) was in the Janata Dal (Secular).
Tampering of files
The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) does not seem to be committed to safeguarding its official records.
When the Lokayukta raided the BDA head office, sleuths found official files in photocopy shops outside the premises and with contractors. Installation of CCTV cameras on the premises had served little purpose.
Fearing that the records may be set on fire to destroy records of culpability by erring officials and realtors, the BDA Commissioner locked up all the records of the controversial Arkavathi Layout in a strong room and put in place round-the-clock surveillance.
However, some BDA officials were caught tampering with the same records in a room. This led to a furore that records were being tampered with under the eyes of the Commissioner himself.
Two days later, three men were arrested by the development authority’s vigilance squad.
They had allegedly stolen an official land allotment file of an NGO, tampered with it, and were caught when they were trying to put it back in the records room.
Will the BDA learn from its mistakes?
Anil Kumar Sastry,
Girish Pattanashetti,
B.S. Satish Kumar, and
K.V. Aditya Bharadwaj
