Learn from Sheila on meeting people: Digvijay to Kejriwal
Bhopal: Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh has suggested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to learn from his predecessor Sheila Dikshit and meet people two hours every day for six days in a week. Noting that Kejriwal has discontinued the ‘Janta Darbars’, he said in his tweet Thursday night that “systems have to be built for effective public grievance redressal and it can’t be done single-handedly.” After his first ‘janta darbar’ ended in a total chaos last week, Kejriwal had said there would be no such public meets and the government will open new channels where people can report their grievances online, via post and through calls. Digvijay recalled that as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister in 1994, he had set up a separate Department of Public Grievances Redressal which registered complaints and these could be tracked online. Singh said that as Chief Minister, he also used to meet people daily for two hours each day without appointment and Sheila had also done the same thing in Delhi for the last 15 years. Sheila had enacted the Right to Citizen Services Timely Delivery Act 2011 in Delhi under which a Commission could summon any officer, he said. (PTI)
Lalu plans to author book
Patna: RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Friday said he has plans to author a book which would have vivid account of his days in politics and also “expose” rivals who conspired to frame him in the multi-crore fodder scam case. “Planning to pen down a book to reveal untold interesting aspects of Indian politics hw ppl used, deceived & conspired against me. wait n watch,” Prasad wrote on the micro-blogging website Twitter. Prasad, known for his earthy jokes and comments in political circle, has said he got inspiration to write a book during his 78 days stay in Ranchi’s Birsa Munda jail in connection with a fodder scam case. Reacting to the announcement on Prasad’s literary pursuit, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister 0mar Abdullah tweeted “I hope its not about me and you.” The RJD chief has shared with his party workers that the book would contain interesting details of his political journey since students days and “fond memories of 1974 JP movement.” As President of Patna University Students Union, Prasad was a prominent figure in 1974 “Sampoorna kranti” of Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan which resulted in ouster of Congress from power. Besides, pristine haul of his political experiences, the RJD President has said he would “expose” his rivals in the book who framed him in the fodder scam case. Prasad has on several occasions hit out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and some JD(U) leaders including Rajya Sabha member Shivanand Tiwari for “implicating” him in the fodder scam case. But, for this readers have to wait as the RJD supremo has said he would begin writing only after the coming Lok Sabha elections are over. (PTI)
American Embassy School in Delhi not run by embassy: US
Washington: With the American Embassy School in New Delhi under the scanner for alleged violation of India’s tax and visa laws, the US sought to sidetrack the issue by suggesting that it was not run by the embassy. Asked to comment on a New York Times report Thursday that female spouses of couples intending to teach at the school were asked to list their occupation on visa applications as “housewife,” State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki instead offered a bit of “history”. “Let me give you all a little more history here,” she said. “Since 1952, when the Embassy exchanged diplomatic notes with the Government of India to establish the American Embassy school, the school has succeeded in providing an international education in New Delhi for the children of diplomatic and expat business communities.” “It is not run by the Embassy. Only about a third of the students there are American,” Psaki said. But “We are in discussion with the Government of India regarding issues they have raised concerning the school.” US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns had “discussed these very issues” with Indian Ambassador S. Jaishankar “earlier this week,” she said. “And we are committed to resolving them through diplomatic channels and to addressing the concerns that have been raised.” The American Embassy School has come under the scanner as a fallout of the retaliatory steps taken by New Delhi to pare down the privileges of US diplomats in India over the Dec 12 arrest and strip-search of Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general in New York. As part of a deal to defuse the situation, Khobragade has since returned to India after New Delhi declined to waive her diplomatic immunity despite her indictment by a New York grand jury on charges of visa fraud and underpaying her nanny. Several American teachers, who are spouses of US diplomats, reportedly work at the American school without legal work permits in violation of Indian laws. The American Embassy School handout “notes that India has placed restrictions on the number of tax-free visas available to school employees”. (IANS)