THIRD EYE: Congress to Celebrate MGNREGS

Congress is all set to celebrate a little-known anniversary on Tuesday — a decade of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme. The party, which has been critical of the Modi government for doing away with awards for MGNREGS workers, is leaving no stone unturned this time. Rahul Gandhi will visit Andhra villages, from where the scheme was launched, to commemorate the event.

Updating on the Web

The NIA has begun to keep its website updated, it seems. The agency, which initially listed the Pathankot attack suspects as either Jaish-e-Mohammad, Tahrik-e-Furqaan or Babbar Khalsa International, updated the post last week, saying that Jaish alone was behind the attack. Apparently, the previous post was based on initial suspicion of Punjab Police.

Irani Sets the Record

Straight At an RSS event, the host made references to HRD minister Smriti Irani’s association with the Sangh. It was made known that Irani’s father was associated with Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, the RSS wing which works with tribals. The minister, who was the next to speak, set the record straight when she corrected the host that it was her maternal grandfather, and not father, who was associated with the Ashram.

Hyderabad Effect

With the Hyderabad University case boiling over, other varsities have also been forced to relook at complaints. While the Lucknow-based Ambedkar University was sitting over a caste discrimination complaint by some students for months now, the Hyderabad effect got the HRD ministry to shoot off a letter to the varsity and the VC to directly reach out to the affected.