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Plan panel’s Loo goof-up triggers review at Shastri Bhawan
The Planning Commission's Rs 35 lakh for two toilets stories may not have been dot on the mark but they seem to have inspired other departments to look inwards too, particularly their toilets.
The Planning Commission's Rs 35 lakh for two toilets stories may not have been dot on the mark but they seem to have inspired other departments to look inwards too, particularly their toilets. A senior government official working out of Shastri Bhawan — where over a dozen ministries are located — has called for a report on the expenditure incurred on toilets over the past five years.
The official said he had been told that their toilets had been renovated far too frequently and wanted to figure if their loos had a potential to raise a stink.
Jairam’s proposal to rename PURA shot down after official points out red tape While launching the second version of PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas), the rural development ministry also thought of re-naming the scheme for a fresh political message.
But Planning Commission member Arun Maira reportedly warned rural development minister Jairam Ramesh that it may fall victim of government's red tapes. PURA has separate budget allocations under its head, Maira pointed out, and changes in the budgetary files to accommodate the new name can even take months, as it had happened before.
No wonder, the rural development minister dropped the idea and is concentrating on creating new versions of the old scheme.
MEA and National Archives put out catalogued list of 70,000 declassified files Someone in the government is finally thinking of making information more accessible. The ministry of external affairs and the National Archives have put out a catalogued list of 70,000 files that had been declassified to make it easier for academics to figure what was available. The public diplomacy division of the foreign ministry has also put the fules in a user-friendly searchable format.
Besides, the ministry promises to declassify 22,000 more files.
