Will Ajay Maken be Delhi's messiah?

new delhi: chief minister sheila dikshit allotted the transport and power portfolios to her close aide ajay maken on thursday. the youngest member of the cabinet, maken, 37, has an arduous task cut out for himself. the supreme court's january 2, 2002 deadline on cng conversion is not the only challenge he would face in the next two years. he also has to find a good business deal for the delhi vidyut board, which is up for privatisation.and the cm thinks maken would handle it best. maken knows what he is up against. "my predecessor parvez hashmi had a harrowing time. i realise it would be a tightrope walk for me but i am ready to face things as they are," he said. he has already slated meetings with transporters and officials to understand the dynamics of the cng crisis. as for power, maken said the previous minister had performed well. "i have a road map. i just to need to tread cautiously," he said. maken, however, is not the only minister facing a sc deadline to accomplish specific tasks in government business. ashok vihar legislator deep chand bandhu has been given charge of the industry portfolio with industrial relocation by september 2002, again on sc orders. bandhu has also been allotted labour, elections, environment and forest. forty-four year old raj kumar chauhan, another new induction to the cabinet, was allotted social welfare and school and technical education. he said his priority would be to streamline the pension schemes. "i would try to stop the transfer of pension through the post office. the elderly people should get pension cheques at home. i would try to ensure that," he said. while finance and planning portfolios remained with mahinder singh saathi, the responsibility to run the revenue department was transferred to haroon yusuf. yusuf has also been allotted food and supplies, development, irrigation and flood control. yusuf, who has to meet a sc deadline to implement the subsidised grain scheme in delhi, said his first priority would be to revamp the public distribution system. "corruption which is the main problem in the food and supplies department, would be weeded out, " he said. yusuf assured that he would have ration cards for people below the poverty line ready by month-end. the court has directed the government to identify the bpl population by december 2001, while the three subsidised grain schemes for targetted population have to be implemented by january. the new portfolios were announced by dikshit in a cabinet meeting following the swearing-in ceremony that was held at raj niwas on thursday morning. health minister a k walia, who continues from the previous cabinet, still holds the health portfolio, but with land and building as an additional charge. the environment and forest department which he held previously has been transferred to bandhu. all the four new ministers occupied their office soon after the portfolios were announced.