Patil tired of dressing down

Speculation over the continuance in office of beleaguered Union home minister Shivraj Patil is gaining ground in political circles with the Congress leadership assessing whether a change is required at this juncture. Sources said this was because competence was not the only criteria for the post and that the “confidence” of the leadership was equally important.

A special meeting of the Union Cabinet has been called on Wednesday to discuss the terror attacks.

“There is no forward movement on this issue (continuance of Mr Patil in his post) at this juncture,” well placed sources said here on Tuesday, adding that “he may go or may not go”. The leadership does not want to take a decision under pressure either from the BJP or from RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav.

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Army may run Commonwealth Games

The armed forces may have a new civilian role to play to make the Commonwealth Games in 2010 a success. One section of the government believes that, given the tardy pace of creation of infrastructure for the Games, it is best to hand over the projects in the National Capital Region to the defence services.

This will be over and above their task of providing an air-land-water security blanket for the Games.

Home minister Shivraj Patil has proposed that the construction of major infrastructure projects, which have already suffered huge cost and time overruns, be handed over to the defence establishment.

A ministerial group on the Games, headed by human resources minister Arjun Singh, will take a view on the proposal at its next meeting in a fortnight. It is likely that the proposal will have the blessings of the Prime Minister's Office.

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