AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 15HAPPY TO BE THERE
The Meghalaya government—
ruled by the National People’s
Party-led coalition—may be
in the NDA fold, but it is eager
to learn from the education
system in the Aam Aadmi
Party-ruled Delhi. Recently,
Meghalaya Education Minister
Lahkmen Rymbui visited a
“happiness class” in a govern-
ment school in the capital with
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister
Manish Sisodia. Impressed
with what he saw, Rymbui
said he was keen to replicate
the happiness curriculum in
his own state. The class aims
at equipping children with a
holistic approach towards life
and teaches them how to deal
with stress.
TEMPORARY BHAVAN?
Biswabhusan Harichandan, the new governor of Andhra
Pradesh, has got a new home. As the bifurcated state does
not have a Raj Bhavan, a building belonging to the irrigation
department will now be his official address. However, going
by history, the single-storey building in Vijayawada may not
serve the governor for long.
It was first used in 2014, when former irrigation minister
Umamaheswara Rao moved here from Hyderabad to be “close
to the people”. A year later, then chief minister N. Chandraba-
bu Naidu used the building as his camp office, but only for
a month. Earlier this year, the Andhra Pradesh High Court
started using this building, but was moved to another location
within a few weeks.
Can the new governor break the jinx?GENTLEMAN’S BILL
On July 22, Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh
had the tough task of tabling the RTI amendment
bill, which the opposition said would destroy
the transparency of the law. But before they
launched the attack on the bill, the opposition
MPs had a word of praise for Singh.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor
called him a decent man, the Tri-
namool Congress’s Saugata Roy
called him a nice man and the
Revolutionary Socialist Party’s
N.K. Premachandran called
him a gentleman. The minister
said he was delighted to
learn this about himself, and
hoped that the house would
take him seriously. Tharoor,
however, took a jibe at him
regarding the bill, en-
couraging Singh to also
behave like a decent
man. The opposition
notwithstanding, the
lower house eventually
passed the bill.