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April 13, 1997 |
Bill of mortality
It took the highest court of India to throw out many former MPs and ministers from their government bungalows and flats. But now one wonders who will make many of them pay their old telephone bills.
According to the ministry of communications, 42 members of the 7th and 8th Lok Sabhas together owe more than Rs 61 lakh to Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL). That includes many who owe more than Rs 50,000.
Members of the 9th Lok Sabha apparently were more the bill-paying type. Collective dues of about 30 of them are around Rs 32 lakh. But the largest dues are from members of the 10th Lok Sabha. Around 190 of them owe MTNL Rs 5.27 crore.
It may not be difficult to collect the dues from those who have been reelected. But what about the others? MTNL continues to send the bills regularly even after many of the phones have been disconnected.
Angrezi is good
Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has begun to flaunt his English which, those close to him say, isn't all that bad. But now one wonders whether Anglicisation has come a bit too late.
Coming out of the Prime Minister's residence the day the Congress pulled the rug from under Gowda's feet, Yadav was at his English-best. To everyone's surprise, Yadav chose English to make his statement.
"We are all united under the leadership of Deve Gowda," he said rather boldly. Asked whether the Congress would split, he retorted, "Ask Uncle", which was his translation for Kesri's pet name "Chacha Kesri".
Goody two-shoes
What the stiff-lipped staff of Mumbai's Willingdon Club couldn't do, stiffly officious Delhi could - make artist M.F. Hussein wear shoes. Years ago, the headline-hungry artist had been thrown out, khadi-kurta, bag and baggage from the burra sahib club for being barefoot. Hussein didn't miss a stroke, rather he gained in fame.
Last week he was in Delhi's National Museum, rubbing shoulders with an official crowd - Minister Bommai and his secretariat - at the inaugural function of national Culture Fund. he was there, complete with the politically-correct footwear, as a member of the council administering fund which will foot the bills for many "culture-related endeavours". Why Hussein decided to become a conformist is a mystery, though.
The fund idea was mooted some time in 1980s by Pupil Jayakar and Indira Gandhi. But the official notification took more than 10 years. Bommai remembered Jayakar with a two-minute silence at the inaugural which, co-incidentally, took place hours after her death.
Health is wealth
Even while placing an annual burden of Rs 8,800 crore on the treasury by recommending a hike in salaries, the fifth pay commission under Justice Ratnavel Pandian has shown, by example, how to be austere. The commission was given a budget of Rs 20 lakh for visits abroad in 1995-96. But now, as the figures have come out, it spent only Rs 15,78 lakh. The members of the commission spent three days each in Malaysia and Canada and four days each in New Zealand and Britain.
The amount pales in comparison with what three Union ministers spent for health care abroad last year - 76 lakh in Indian rupees and 55,000 in pounds sterling.
The plane truth
The Charkhi-Dadri mid-air disaster shook the civil aviation ministry. Twice the ministry officials prepared faulty briefs for their Minister C.M. Ibrahim, immediately after the incident. On November 21, they made Ibrahim say "Yes, sir" to a starred question in Parliament to which he was supposed to say "No, sir". Again, on December 5, they led him up the aerial path. In the answer they prepared for him on how Delhi is air-linked with Ahmedabad they included three non-existing weekly flights of Indian Airlines via Jaipur. Some flight of fancy?
The mistakes were realised nearly four months later and corrective statements issued.
R PRASANNAN
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