Delhi Confidential: Nitin Nabin’s Mumbai-Pune Ganeshotsav tour, NTA gets new address

Welcome to Delhi Confidential, your inside track to the power corridors of the capital. Today: From BJP president Nitin Nabin’s Ganeshotsav visits in Mumbai and Pune to the NTA’s move to a new Central Delhi office and plans by two ministries to hold departmental summits.

1. 01

   Pandal Hopping

   BJP PRESIDENT Nitin Nabin’s packed schedule for the week includes a one-day trip to Maharashtra and back-to-back visits to pandals and temples across Mumbai and Pune on the occasion of Ganeshotsav. The “highly significant spiritual visit”, as dubbed by the party, will begin with the BJP chief offering prayers at Shri Siddhivinayak Temple on Wednesday morning, followed by the renowned ‘Lalbaugcha Raja’ pandal, among others, before calling on prominent members of the NDA government. He will visit Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s official residence at Malabar Hill and take part in the celebrations there. He will also visit the puja at Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Pawar’s homes nearby. Later, Nabin will visit pandals and temples across Pune, including the Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Mandal.

2. 02

   New Address

   The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Monday conducted a puja at its new office in the Government of India Press building on Minto Road. The ceremony was attended by the agency’s senior officials, including its Director General. Earlier, the NTA headquarters was located in the Okhla area of South East Delhi. The shifting of the main office to Central Delhi comes amid the NTA’s ongoing overhaul following the paper leak controversies. The nodal autonomous body conducts key entrance tests for admission to premier higher educational institutions.

3. 03

   Next Summit

   TWO KEY social-sector ministries — Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment — are planning their departmental summits on the lines of the recent National Departmental Summit on Water hosted by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti. The two-day summit, held earlier this month, was addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is learnt to have praised the initiative of the ministry led by Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil.