FGG urges Governor to order probe into Protocol Dept expenses
The Hindu
‘Amount allocated for hire of vehicles warrants a probe’
The Forum for Good Governance (FGG) has requested for an inquiry into the excess expenditure incurred by the office of Director of Protocol, Telangana, during the current financial year. In a letter addressed to the Governor of the State on Saturday, secretary of FGG M. Padmanabha Reddy stated that a casual look at the amount spent by the Protocol Department, particularly on two sub-heads — other office expenses (hospitality charges like providing tea and others) and hiring private vehicles — was abnormally high. The allocation for the “other office expenses” for the year (2021-22) was ₹8 crore as mentioned in the budget estimated presented to the State Legislature and got approved earlier this year. The amount would translate into the spend at ₹2 lakh per day for providing tea and biscuits (refreshments) in the Secretariat.“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.