M A I N   N E W S

Vacation time for ministers
Shubhangi Khapre

New Delhi, June 10
With the Prime Minister away, the Capital’s corridors of power wears a deserted look. Several ministers have left for cooler climes abroad and inside the country to escape the Delhi summer. The government administration has virtually come to a halt as most of the ministers and lawmakers are on vacation or on tours abroad, confide senior officials.

Some of those who could not make it to coveted tourist destinations — the USA, Britain or Switzerland — have settled for a holiday with family and friends in their native states. Of a total of 68 ministers in Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s three-tier Cabinet, 25 were out of the Capital.

Yashwant Sinha, officials say, has left for the USA for medical treatment. He is expected to stay there for two weeks. Power Minister Suresh Prabhu and Urban Development Minister Jagmohan are also in the USA. Labour Minister Satyanarayan Jatiya is in Geneva attending an ILO conference. Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan is in the USA for a conference. Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj is leaving next week on a two-week tour to Japan, the USA and the UK.

A minister, who returned from abroad after a two-week holiday, admits, “Attending seminars and conferences abroad is like going on a vacation. It gives us some respite from the daily grind.”

As Vajpayee recuperates from his knee surgery at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai, there was nobody to keep a check on the truant ministers from New Delhi. With the Prime Minister likely to stay in hospital for nearly 10 days, there is unlikely to be any Cabinet meeting during that time, officials said.

The list of those who have escaped to their constituencies or native places is also long. Tourism and Culture Minister Ananth Kumar is said to be attending to his official work from Bangalore, M. Kannappan, Minister of Non-conventional Energy Sources, is in Chennai, Minister of State for Human Resources Development Jaisinghrao Gaikwad Patil is in Maharashtra. Heavy Industries Minister Manohar Joshi is in Mumbai, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Santosh Gangwar is seeking solace away from the hurly-burly of politics in Rae Bareli, Minister of State for Home Vidyasagar Rao is in his home town Hyderabad, Minister of State for Law, Justice and Company Affairs O Rajagopal and Minister of Commerce and Industry Murasoli Maran are in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, respectively, Water Resources Minister Arjun Charan Sethi and Minister of Tribal Affairs Jual Oram are in Orissa, Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh left for Patna on Friday and will return to Delhi on June 12. IANS