Third Eye: House-hunting trouble for Beni

SP’s Beni Prasad Verma is a hassled man after his election to the Rajya Sabha. Lack of a suitable accommodation in Lutyens’ Delhi is the main reason. He travels in his WagonR from Dwarka to Parliament House to attend the session. Verma is trying to reach out to Om Mathur of BJP who is all set to head the housing panel that will allot residences to new members. Last heard, Verma has not managed to meet him in the Upper House.

After Maya, it’s Mamata

While Mayawati declared herself as "devi"(goddess) for her party’s traditional supporters, there seems to be a fear of missing out in other parties. This was evident in Lok Sabha on Monday when TMC member Idris Ali equated his party chief Mamata Banerjee as "devi Saraswati" and "Mother Teresa". Ali had visited Ajmer Sharif to pray for the party at the peak of Saradha controversy. Also, Mamata is set to attend Teresa’s canonisation at the Vatican in September.



Guru Pranam at IGNCA

While well-known artist Kapila Vatsyayan was finally sent out of the Indira Gandhi National centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in a board rejig in April this year, the reconstituted IGNCA is set to commemorate one of her gurus. Vasudev Sharan Agarwal, scholar of Indian Art, accepted her as a PhD student upon her return to India. IGNCA will dedicate a Sanskriti shrinkhala to him this year.



Bureaucrats on the Radar

The Centre’s focus on "rightsizing" bureaucracy is not new, but the efforts have now reached the ministry offices at Shastri Bhawan. The new empanelment process is long and consists of detailed enquiry where not only performance of the bureaucrat is analysed but also his/her behaviour with junior-most officials, attendance and attitude towards work and meetings.