Labour ministry pains

The Congress may have had an eye to elections by appointing the 85-year-old Sis Ram Ola as labour minister but neither bureaucrats in Shram Shakti Bhavan nor the media appreciate his replacing the energetic Mallikarjun Kharge in the last reshuffle. Officials complain he treats them like children. As for journalists - well, they are flummoxed. Last week Ola called a press conference to talk of the initiative to begin online transfer of Provident Fund for workers. Instead, he devoted the entire speech to the Uttarakhand floods and then left the conference room abruptly without bothering to take questions. Ministry officials also quietly followed Ola, leaving the media high and dry.