Pal wont PAC it in

2 dates and an Army

Army Chief Gen V K Singhs detractors thought they had hit the jackpot when they obtained a birth certificate from Pune showing his date of birth as June 9,1949,which would have meant an earlier retirement. But a closer look revealed foul play Singhs father married only in September 1949. The certificate shows he was born in a nursing home in Pune,while Singh was born in the Pune Military Hospital. While it gets the fathers name right,the grandfathers name is wrong. Its believed that senior officers named in the Sukhna and Adarsh scams are behind this ploy. Last heard,the Army Chief had formally lodged a police complaint in Pune as well as Delhi.

Ministry says fly private

Keeping in mind the turbulent situation at Air India,the Civil Aviation Ministry has given blanket permission to all government officials to fly on private airlines for the next five days. Officials calling in with class upgradation requests are also being told to instead book on private airlines. The ministry,which receives 100-150 such requests for permission on a daily basis,has seen a deluge of requests from government offices the past two days. So much so that one of the fax lines is continuously engaged,often leaving no room for sending out faxes.

Judge as hacking victim

Even Supreme Court judges are not immune to hacking. Recently a distress mail went out from Justice Markandeya Katjus id to a select few,informing them that he had been robbed of his cash,credit card and mobile phone while on a trip to Spain and pleading that 3,000 Euros be arranged and sent to him so that he could pay his hotel bills and return home. The mail promised that the amount would be returned once Justice Katju got back. Realising what had happened,another mail quickly went out of his office before anybody fell into the trap,asking them to ignore the earlier mail and informing that his account had been hacked. The judge has now opened a new e-mail account.

Ajit waits,and waits

It has been a long wait for Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh. Over six months after he gave a list of three demands to Congress leaders,including setting up of a Second State Reorganisation Commission to consider creation of Harit Pradesh,as a pre-condition for his partys merger with the Congress,the ruling party at the Centre is yet to get back. In the meantime,senior Congress leaders have been maintaining that they are in favour of a merger or at least a seat-sharing arrangement with the RLD for next years Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Ajit Singhs aides claim a section of the Congress leaders are opposing the coming together of the two parties.

A union over Carbide

Senior advocate Harish Salve,who represents the accused former Carbide staffers in the curative petition for enhancement of punishment in the Bhopal gas tragedy,suggested to the Supreme Court that a mere clarification in the 1996 Supreme Court order allowing the appeals court to consider charges more serious than criminal negligence would be a shorter way to justice. He owed the idea to chats between him and Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati,who represents the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI). The suggestion drew a volley of protests from victims groups lawyers who accused the CBI of engaging in backroom talks with the accused. But Salve explained that it was merely an informal discussion between Harish and Goolam,as friends.