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HRD ministry’s old foe with new barb, MPs pulled up for sloppy replies, Total hush-hush over railway budget. HT listens in.

HRD ministry’s old foe with new barb

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When former director of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad Bakul Dholakia publicly joined hands with private b-schools to oppose new government admission rules, several human resource development ministry couldn’t stop themselves from smiling. Dholakia was opposing controversial AICTE rules that bars private b-schools from conducting their own admission tests and empower state governments to participate in admissions. The latest barb suggests Kapil Sibal may be Dholakia’s next target.

MPs pulled up for sloppy replies

It has been an old ploy of the bureaucracy to avoid giving out too much information to questions raised in Parliament. But the parliamentary affairs ministry has barred ministries from directing members of parliament to visit their websites for getting detailed answers and told them to avoid clubbing their written answers. RS chairman Hamid Ansari had caught on to bureaucrats’ practice of clubbing answers to avoid answering each part separately, a tactic that allows them to not respond to uncomfortable questions.

Total hush-hush over railway budget

In an unprecedented security for the budget, the government has imposed restrictions for the journalists. For the first time, vigil has been increased in railway ministry and in the planning commission. The scribes are not to be allowed to meet anyone before prior appointment.