Needed a toughie

Long before the Commonwealth Games officials came to town to inspect the work being done, there was considerable disquiet in the Prime Minister’s Office over the lack of progress in the preparations. To help MS Gill, he was even given an assistant, Jarnail Singh, a former joint secretary in the PMO and a former chief secretary in Manipur. Instead of reducing the disquiet, the move has increased it. Singh is a gentleman but that’s probably the last thing you need right now. What makes things worse is that the other name doing the rounds at that time was that of V K Duggal. A go-getter, Duggal is a UT cadre officer and has served in Delhi long enough to know enough people to get work done — and being the home secretary till a few years ago also helps.