It’s no secret that whenever plans are discussed at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, office of the Civil Aviation Ministry, for setting up new pilot training academies in India, the first town that zooms up is Gondia, home to Minister Praful Patel. Special fund allocations have been made for this mammoth project. One of the gains from the Boeing and Airbus deals is that the companies will help set up training facilities in the country. Speculation is rife this boon will go to Gondia, which has already been given technical clearance by the DGCA. All these have left Congress president Sonia Gandhi anxious about the status of the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udaan Academy in Rae Bareli. While she has written to Patel about her concerns, it's learnt even Rahul Gandhi is perturbed. The ministry has sent detailed replies to both and Patel is believed to have briefed the PMO too. While there is a desperate need for more schools, will IGRUA lose its “premier institution” tag to Gondia? There's no word from Patel as yet.

Policing the appointer

A persistent rumour doing the rounds at North Block last week was that the Union Home Ministry had decided to replace Delhi Police Commissioner K K Paul with the CBI’s ace officer Madanlal Sharma, a Rajasthan cadre officer of the 1972 batch. It took the IPS lobby by surprise as Paul still has six months left before retirement. Nor could they understand why the Home Ministry should get an officer from outside the UT cadre as Delhi Police chief. Anyway, it certainly irked the country’s first woman cop and the only UT cadre officer of the 1972 batch — Kiran Bedi. She sought immediate appointment with Home Secretary Vinod Duggal. Bedi has been empanelled as Director General of Police and ministry sources reveal that an angry Bedi stormed into Duggal’s office and warned him through a letter that she would move court if the ministry tried to impose an outsider on the Delhi force. The “Venugopal” act worked and it seems that the ministry has backed off, at least for the moment.

... contd.