NK'S POST

A minister  absconds in MP, as a court issues a warrant for his arrest in connection with a murder case NK SINGH MP’s Minister of State for Happiness Lal Singh Arya is not a happy man. He is a fugitive, on the run from the law. A court in Bhind, his home district, issued a non-bailable warrant for his arrest last week. The judge has asked the police to arrest him and present him in the court where he is wanted in connection with a murder trial. The police are trying its best not to arrest him. The prevailing wisdom in BJP, the ruling party that he represents in the state assembly, is that Arya is innocent and he should avoid his arrest, as long as he can. For, an arrest means his imminent ouster from the ministry. So, Arya has gone underground, or at least that is what the police would like us to believe. All this running around, naturally, does not make Arya a very happy person. Last heard, the Happiness Minister was seen visiting the CM secretariat in Bhopal after t...

TOO MUCH PUBLICITY CAN BECOME NEGATIVE PUBLICITY NK SINGH   Companies engaged in c rop insurance business just made a killing in Madhya Pradesh, earning a profit of nearly Rs 1,200 crore in a single season.  They collected premium of Rs 3,000 crore from farmers and government and paid 1,800 crore as insurance benefit to those who suffered kharif damages last year. “The scheme seems beneficial to insurance companies,” says former Chief Secretary of MP, Nirmala Buch, who is passionate about a farm that she cultivates at outskirts of Bhopal.    No one will grudge the profit that the companies made – profit and loss are legitimate business for underwriters – even if it comes out of taxpayers’ money. Farmers are required to pay only one-fifth of premium. Remaining share comes from your and my pockets. The crop insurance scheme is in news because the government walked extra miles for it. The mai-baap sarkar tried to turn something as routine as insurance...

Millions of job-seekers, students and common citizens suffer due to MP Govt's fatal attraction for TCS NK SINGH Madhya Pradesh Government’s ambitious effort to recruit 9,235 Patwaris through a transparent, online entrance test seems to has gone haywire.The first phase of Patwari entrance exam, conducted by MP Professional Examination Board, was engulfed by chaos and mismanagement caused by technical glitches. Server failure and software malfunction led to one-third of 26,887 candidates not being able to write their papers. Fearing the worst – PEB is rechristened name of the ill-famous Vyapam – enraged candidates created a ruckus at many of the 85 exam centres spread over 16 towns in the State. They shouted slogans, pelted stones and stopped road traffic, necessitating police intervention. PEB has asked Tata Consultancy Services, the service provider hired for online exam, to arrange for fresh test for remaining aspirants. More than 10.20 lakh people have applie...

Roads in MP towns are death traps NK SINGH   Road Transport Ministry’s recently released report analysing road accidents in 2016 did not surprise anyone in Madhya Pradesh. Indore achieved the dubious distinction of being among the top five cities in the country with most dangerous roads. The other cities in that list are metros like Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata. Kolkata, the smallest of the metros, is two and half times as big as Indore. Bhopal and Jabalpur are vying with Mumbai, six times their size, in accident figures. Roads in MP’s urban areas are virtual death traps. In Bhopal, one of its best planned towns, driving used to be a pleasure. Now it is a pain. Motorists may drive or pedestrians may cross a road only at risk to their lives or limbs. People who suffer most, for no fault of theirs, are the poor pedestrians. They account for 14 per cent of road fatalities in MP, according to a study by National Centre for Human Settlement and Environment. ...

Light at the end tunnel for home buyers   NK SINGH The project promised to “change the identity” of Bhopal. With 22 floors, Gammon India’s Central Business District in the State capital is the tallest ever high rise of MP. Coming up in downtown Bhopal, the residential-cum-commercial complex is carved out of what once used to be public land. Part of MP Government’s re-densification plan, it was envisaged long before smart city idea came up. Its developers guaranteed “unlimited luxury” and advertised it was not for everyone: “The crème de la crème will be invited to possess it.” Among the people who booked flats are the great and good of the town --- civil servants, doctors, engineers, businessmen. Now 10 years in the making, the project is a towering example of all that is wrong with real estate business in the State. Government allotted land to Gammon in February 2008, a boom period for realty. Under lease conditions, it should have completed by 2013. But slow pro...

A CM WHO IS 24/7 IN ELECTION MODE NK SINGH Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is known for his ability to garner votes. His vision is transfixed at elections. He eats, drinks and breaths election, say people close to him. His governance is wired to take all decisions from the perspective of popular votes. The Chief Minister is in elections mode, 24/7. He does not take any election, howsoever insignificant, lightly. He is probably the first ever chief minister of MP who has started campaigning even in municipal elections which are often decided by a margin of double digit votes. Most of his predecessors used to consider it below their dignity to campaign in even assembly by-elections. Chouhan goes soliciting votes where even his ministers do not reach. For such a man, a man whose top priority has been winning elections at all costs, the report card that people of Madhya Pradesh handed over to political parties in late August, must have come as a shock t...

नरेन्द्र कुमार सिंह मुख्यमंत्री शिवराज सिंह चौहान की ख्याति एक ऐसे नेता के रूप में है जिन्हें वोट बटोरने की कला में महारथ हासिल है. उनकी नजर चौबीसों घंटे चुनावी शतरंज की बिसात पर टिकी रहती है. शिवराज सरकार के हर छोटे बड़े काम का एक ही मक्सद होता है ---- ज्यादा से ज्यादा वोट हासिल करना. कोई भी चुनाव चौहान के लिए छोटा नहीं है. नगर पंचायत के चुनावों तक को वे एक चुनौती के रूप में लेते हैं. प्रतिद्वंदी को कमजोर समझने की गलती आज तक उन्होंने नहीं की है. वे शायद मध्य प्रदेश के पहले मुख्यमंत्री हैं जिन्होंने म्युनिसिपलिटी के चुनाव में भी अपने आप को झोंक दिया है. बड़े नेता ऐसे छोटे इलेक्शन से कतराते हैं क्योंकि अक्सर उनमें फैसला १०० से भी कम वोटों से हो जाता है. उनके पहले के मुख्यमंत्री स्थानीय निकायों के इलेक्शन से इसलिए भी बचते थे क्योंकि ऐसे छोटे मोटे चुनावों में प्रचार करना उनको अपनी तौहीन लगती थी. चौहान तो अक्सर ऐसी जगहों पर वोट मांगते दिख जाते हैं जहाँ उनके मंत्री भी कभी दिखाई नहीं पड़ते थे. इसीका नतीजा है कि वे भाजपा को लगातार दो बार विधान सभा चुनाव में जीत हासिल करवा चुके हैं. ...

Some Ministers dazzle MP with their brilliance NK SINGH Alice was lost in wonderland. Kusum Singh Mahdele is lost in Twitterland. You may not have heard of the lady. She is a senior cabinet minister in Madhya Pradesh Government. Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s advice to use social media, she has taken to twitter like a duck to water. She is a natural. Often irreverent, never boring, she gives as good as she gets. Once the minister informed a polling site that its questions were “idiotic”. After she received flak for mistakenly congratulating fellow politician Kailash Vijaywargiya for getting Nobel Peace Prize, she brazenly tweeted: “What has Kailash Satyarthi done for MP’s children? Even children here do not know.” It is a pity that her twitter handle, @ikusummahdele, has only 855 followers, for she is, frequently, vastly entertaining. Mahdele, BSc, LLB, expresses her opinion on everything under the sun, from politics to diplomacy and from Mother’s Day to vide...

New academic innovation: Gaushala on campus NK SINGH Madhya Pradesh is blazing new trails in academic innovations. The latest is the plan to open a cowshed in a journalism university. It is a novel concept, the idea of one of the most fertile brains of our times. It’s protagonist, Brij Kishore Kuthiala certainly deserves a Bharat Ratna for that. It perfectly synchronises with his world view of an ideal education system – the Gurukul of Krishna where pupils take cows to graze in surrounding forests, milk the animals, collect firewood, beg for food in villages and then settle down to their studies. Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism & Communication, established by MP Government, has earmarked one-tenth of the area in its 50-acre new campus at Bhopal for establishing a   cowshed. The gaushala, says it’s vice chancellor Brij Kishore Kuthiala, will provide scarce pure and fresh milk and curd to faculty and students. The university will also benef...

Is his Narmada yatra political pilgrimage or spiritual journey? NK SINGH AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh wants to be relieved of all organisational responsibilities. He has already written a letter about it to his bosses, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her deputy, Rahul Gandhi. Translated in plain English, he has quit party posts and is, at present, serving notice period. Singh is also a member of the powerful Congress Working Committee and is on several important committees of the party. According to party sources, the Congress high command has accepted his resignation and indicated that he will be shortly divested of his position and responsibilities in the organisation. Singh, 70, had asked for sabbatical to go on a six month pilgrimage, walking the 2,600 km long banks of Narmada. The traditional Narmada parikrama (circumambulation of the holy river) starts from its source at Amarkantak hills in MP to the river’s mouth at Bharuch in Gujarat, where it drain...