Work to rule

With the resignation of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) ministers yesterday, the finance ministry lost its Minister of State (MoS) for Finance S S Palanimanickam, who was a member of the United Progressive Alliance's regional ally. The news of the DMK pull-out was running on TV channels from the morning and finance ministry officials were closely following the political developments. All the same, they continued to mark some routine files to Palanimanickam who came to North Block for a short while on Wednesday morning. "We don't have any official intimation. As long as there is no written communication, we cannot assume things on our own and stop marking the files," explained one official. The files will now be sent back to these officials, possibly with a suggestion that the second MoS, Namo Narain Meena, will handle his former colleague's responsibilities till a replacement is found.