Change Of Plans
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s plans for Thursday changed at the last moment following the indictment of Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani by prosecutors in the US. Gandhi was scheduled to leave for a wedding in Jaipur in the morning, but senior Congress leaders asked him to stay back in Delhi and address a press conference on the issue. He did leave for the Jaipur wedding, which is also being attended by Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and her family, but only after attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP over the alleged scam and demanding immediate arrest of Gautam Adani.
Return Gift
During study tours of standing committees, MPs are often gifted hampers as a welcome gesture by the hosts. However, CPI-ML MP Sudama Prasad took a strong exception to a gift bag given recently during a trip to Bengaluru, Tirupati and Hyderabad as part of a study tour of the Standing Committee of Railways. According to a letter he wrote to C M Ramesh, the chairman of the panel, each gift hamper given by Rail India Technical and Economic Service and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd had 1-gram gold coin and 100-gram silver block in them. Prasad, who returned the bag, said he was angry because such gifts were being given to MPs at a time when passengers were facing multiple challenges, including safety and increasing fares, and sanitation workers at railway stations were not being paid proper wages. Prasad’s stand not only left the other MPs embarrassed, but also confused the railway officials about how to handle the situation.
Green Bond
Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was BJP’s in-charge for Jharkhand Assembly elections, planted 50 saplings during his visits to the state in the last three months. Before leaving for Delhi on Thursday, he planted saplings in Nivaranpur, Ranchi. According to his associates, Chouhan has been diligently planting a sapling every day for the last three years. He has already planted over 4,000 saplings.
