Presidential focus

President Pranab Mukherjee seems to be taking his role as Visitor to educational institutions seriously.

President Pranab Mukherjee seems to be taking his role as Visitor to several educational institutions rather seriously. Having held two daylong conferences with vice-chancellors of 40 Central Universities and more recently with directors of all National institutes of Technology,Rashtrapati Bhavan,it is learnt,is now set to invite V-Cs for a second round. The next V-Cs conference is scheduled for February next year and the agenda has already been circulated to the HRD Ministry. Among other items,it seeks an action taken report on the points raised at the last V-Cs conference.

CENTRE CALLING

UP chief secretary Jawed Usmani,who had served in Manmohan Singhs PMO before taking up his current job after Akhilesh Yadav came to power,is learnt to be itching to return to the Central government. Though there were reports last year about his being frustrated due to lack of freedom to act independently,he chose to not make any move so soon after taking up this job. This time,however,official circles are abuzz about him scouting for a secretarial position at the Centre,preferably in some economic ministry.

CAMPAIGNS IN CONTRAST

The FM radio campaigns launched by the Congress and the BJP are a study in contrast. While every Congress spot has Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit listing out development works in Delhi promising even better life,in the BJP spots its CM candidate Dr Harshvardhan is conspicuous by his absence. There is Narendra Modi promising model government for the city-state of Delhi,Arun Jaitley recounting how many areas in Delhi have missed out on development,Nitin Gadkari promising ATP plants (as against STPs sewage treatment plants) to clean the Yamuna and Sushma Swaraj on the four-point programme for women. AAPs Arvind Kejriwal is also the sole radio star for his party.

LEAK TAINT

An inspector from the Border Security Force (BSF),on deputation with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) since its inception,had to bear the wrath of his senior officers probing alleged leakage of Indian Mujahideen terrorist Yasin Bhatkals interrogation details. NIA has asked senior inspector Satender Singh from BSF to be repatriated to the force after they claimed that Singh allegedly leaked the contents of the Bhatkals interrogation. Singh who was part of the team that questioned Bhatkal was reportedly not given any grounds for the decision.