Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore
IT IS a guessing game for some guests seeking to meet Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore at his office. Not without a reason — he has three offices in his name in the same building. Rathore, who was a Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting since 2014, had an office on the first floor of Shastri Bhawan. After he got independent charge of the ministry in May, he moved to the office of the I&B Minister — occupied by his seniors until now — on the fifth floor of the building. However, with no replacement yet, his previous office continues to be in his name. To add to this, as the minister in charge for Sports and Youth Affairs, Rathore also occupies an office on the fourth floor of the building. This has left some of his guests wondering as to on which floor he could be found.
No Show
A THREE-MINUTE short film commissioned by the Environment Ministry on shunning plastic, featuring Amitabh Bachchan, is set to miss the World Environment Day deadline of June 5. The reason: a prolonged discussion in the ministry about whether minister Harsh Vardhan should appear in the film or not. India is the global host for the World Environment Day this year. Last heard, the portions featuring Bachchan had already been shot.
Desperate Measures
RAILWAY MINISTER Piyush Goyal is learnt to have warned officers that late running of trains would impact individual promotion prospects. Aside from pointing out that there is hardly any justified way of implementing the threat, officers in their WhatsApp groups are also talking about a Facebook post by Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani the day after that said it was foolish to “sacrifice physical gains for momentary, marginal gain in daily figures”. Lohani has been advocating automatic reporting of all asset-related figures, including train running. “We have to change our thought processes and be prepared to pay the price,” the post says.