The Hindu      08.09.2014  

Civic officials’ managerial skills tested

The Prime Minister’s address to students on Teachers’ Day gave
officials in the three municipal corporations an opportunity to test
their event management skills.

With hundreds of children
congregating at primary schools to watch the telecast on September 5,
officials tried to make sure the arrangements were in place. Television
sets, dish antennas and set-top boxes were rented for schools that did
not have these facilities. At other schools, projectors and screens were
put up. Teachers and principals turned up in their finest saris to play
host. They made sure there were snacks for visitors and that the
children maintained silence.

Despite all the planning, there were some glitches.

At
the Turkman Gate primary school, rain disrupted the satellite signal
and the electricity connection was unreliable. Since mediapersons had
gathered at the school, the Deputy Director of Education of the North
Delhi Municipal Corporation was sent to have things sorted out.

Though the children missed the first 10-15 minutes, the signal was secured with the help of members of a television crew.

While
political circles in the city are abuzz with prospects of the Bharatiya
Janata Party forming the government in Delhi, the topic of discussion
in bureaucratic circles is transfer and postings of senior officers.
Ever since the BJP came to power at the Centre, the local BJP leaders
have been lobbying for transfer of some senior IAS officers, especially
those “who were appointed at key positions by the Aam Aadmi Party
government”.

Removal of Chief Secretary S. K. Srivastava is being seen through that prism.

Sources
in the Delhi Secretariat said some officers are being targeted as they
are seen to be ‘hurting the interest’ of some political big-wigs. “Lakhs
of bogus ration cards have been weeded out over the last few months. It
has hurt the nexus of ration shop owners and traders who are protected
by some politicians across the party lines,” an official said, while
giving the reason for some recent transfers.

Delhi High
Court Judge Hima Kohli has been appointed patron of a new group, Women
in Law and Litigation (WILL), established in the Capital as a
first-of-its-kind platform to provide support to women lawyers, judges
and jurists to achieve excellence in the field of law.

The unique initiative has received support from Supreme Court Judge Ranjana Desai and High Court Chief Justice G. Rohini.

WILL
was inaugurated at a function organised in the SCOPE Complex Auditorium
on Friday evening, where the leading lights of law laid emphasis on
encouraging women to join the legal profession and providing them
opportunities for career growth, besides creating a safe and secure
atmosphere for them.

Delivering the keynote address on “Role of
women in law and litigation”, Justice Rohini said while the legal
profession was a bastion of male dominance, the WILL would provide a
platform to women professionals to share and learn from each other’s
experiences and innovative ideas.

Justice Hima Kohli said the
legal profession was demanding and could burden women with expectations,
while hoping that the initiative would help them become successful.

WILL
vice-president and senior advocate Prathiba M. Singh pointed out that
Delhi had the highest number of women judges in comparison with other
States in the country.

(Damini Nath, Vishal Kant & Mohammed Iqbal)