Thursday, February 19, 2009
AHMEDABAD : Chief minister Narendra Modi is known to have a strong following among women. He also knows how much influence the woman of the house
wields. Graduating from mahila sammellans in the rural setting, Modi is now hosting wives of IAS, IPS and IFS officers at Gandhinagar ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The meeting is being organised by wife of chief secretary D Rajagopalan. In many cases it was husbands who got the call and were asked to send their wives to the meet on Friday. But of course the meet might end up with officers like Geetha Johri, Anita Karwal, Sunaina Tomar attending it too, because they happen to be wives of IPS, or IFS officers. COUNTDOWN BEGINS
Ticket aspirants in the BJP are keeping their fingers crossed. For, starting February 20, central observers of the party will fan out to different districts and collect recommendations on candidates for upcoming Lok Sabha polls from party workers. Incidentally, BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani is also visiting Ahmedabad on Friday -- the day when observers will meet workers for short-listing candidates for Ahmedabad (East) seat. "To make the entire exercise constructive, we have told party workers that they are free to recommend names. But they are also told oppose names suggested by others," said a senior BJP leader. Gujarat government may have finally recognised the competence of Ravi Saxena, an IAS bureaucrat of 1978 batch, by appointing him as state health secretary, a powerful post responsible for controlling the mighty health establishment. However, the officialdom seems puzzled. Despite several reminders, the Central government is not letting him go to take up the new assignment. He took over a Central job, of development commissioner, Kandla SEZ, after feeling sidelined under the Narendra Modi government for years together. But finding that work with Modi could be more exciting, he decided to prematurely returned to the state fold.
"Though he has been appointed state health secretary, the Centre is strangely not clearing the file relieving him", a senior official known to be close to Saxena complained. Result -- health remains a parentless department. There is nobody to monitor what is happening at Modasa, where people have died due to Hepatitis-B. Even health commissioner Amarjit Singh, second in command in the department, is awaiting an appointment in Delhi.
wields. Graduating from mahila sammellans in the rural setting, Modi is now hosting wives of IAS, IPS and IFS officers at Gandhinagar ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The meeting is being organised by wife of chief secretary D Rajagopalan. In many cases it was husbands who got the call and were asked to send their wives to the meet on Friday. But of course the meet might end up with officers like Geetha Johri, Anita Karwal, Sunaina Tomar attending it too, because they happen to be wives of IPS, or IFS officers. COUNTDOWN BEGINS
Ticket aspirants in the BJP are keeping their fingers crossed. For, starting February 20, central observers of the party will fan out to different districts and collect recommendations on candidates for upcoming Lok Sabha polls from party workers. Incidentally, BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani is also visiting Ahmedabad on Friday -- the day when observers will meet workers for short-listing candidates for Ahmedabad (East) seat. "To make the entire exercise constructive, we have told party workers that they are free to recommend names. But they are also told oppose names suggested by others," said a senior BJP leader. Gujarat government may have finally recognised the competence of Ravi Saxena, an IAS bureaucrat of 1978 batch, by appointing him as state health secretary, a powerful post responsible for controlling the mighty health establishment. However, the officialdom seems puzzled. Despite several reminders, the Central government is not letting him go to take up the new assignment. He took over a Central job, of development commissioner, Kandla SEZ, after feeling sidelined under the Narendra Modi government for years together. But finding that work with Modi could be more exciting, he decided to prematurely returned to the state fold.
"Though he has been appointed state health secretary, the Centre is strangely not clearing the file relieving him", a senior official known to be close to Saxena complained. Result -- health remains a parentless department. There is nobody to monitor what is happening at Modasa, where people have died due to Hepatitis-B. Even health commissioner Amarjit Singh, second in command in the department, is awaiting an appointment in Delhi.
