New Delhi, Sep 13 - You can take Farooq Abdullah out of Kashmir, but you can't take Kashmir out of him. Even as a central cabinet minister in charge of new and renewable energy - that is bound to be a crucial ministry in some years as the country hunts for alternative energy sources - he is fixated on his home state.

During a recent trip to Chennai to visit a factory manufacturing turbines for windmills, the National Conference patron was impressed with the technology but complained that the blades of the windmills were too big to be transported to Ladakh, which falls in Jammu and Kashmir.

'How will you get them across the mountains and the Jawahar Tunnel (which connects the Kashmir Valley to the rest of India)? You have to make smaller windmills for Ladakh because we really need renewable sources of energy there,' he told the manufacturer.

It is now believed that customized blades are being built!

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Delhiites, you may be on camera

Is Delhi going the London way? Residents may come under watch if the home ministry's proposal of getting closed circuit television (CCTVs) cameras installed in major buildings, bus stations and important markets gets off the ground soon.

Home Secretary G.K. Pillai has already spoken of carpet surveillance by CCTVs at venues and surroundings ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. A pilot project is under way in a shopping complex in Vasant Vihar, a posh residential colony in south Delhi, as a model for this type of surveillance. Apparently 37 cameras have been installed in this market.

'So, if you are walking hand-in-hand with somebody significant, there is no place to hide,' he warned jokingly, amid titters.

London is probably one of the most watched-over cities in the world with a huge number of cameras all around the city. If a person steps out on the streets for a day, he will be photographed at least 50 times.

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Will father Pawar get better of NCP?

The efforts of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar to promote his daughter Supriya Sule for the top job in the party has obviously not gone down well with many of its senior leaders, including Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.

The buzz in the party, which is a coalition partner in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, is that Patel is actively contemplating switching over to the Congress and has had secret parleys with leaders who have been advocating the merger of the two parties.

Pawar formed the NCP in 1999 after splitting from the Congress on the issue of foreign origin of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who is Italy-born. With seat sharing talks still to be firmed up for the Maharashtra assembly elections, this could be a development to watch out for.

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Cold feet for choppers

Call it the YSR effect, but ever since the untimely death of the Andhra Pradesh chief minister, politicians are thinking twice before charging off in choppers for emergency visits.

For instance, low profile Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi developed cold feet at the prospect of taking a helicopter in rainy weather to Shillong for a two-day conference with editors of rural areas of the northeast. The event scheduled for next week has now been cancelled with Joshi saying he could not attend.

Neither of his two deputies will be available. Agatha Sangma is expected to visit England while the other minister of state, Pradeep Jain, has also washed his hands off the outing.

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India's women troopers giving Pakistan jitters

The deployment of the all women battalion at the India-Pakistan border in Punjab, the first of its kind, seems to be giving sleepless nights to Pakistan as it has been busy running down the security initiative.

First, a news report appeared on a prominent website that called the Border Security Force (BSF) women objectionable names. This shocked the Indian defence establishment, which, however, passed it off as propaganda. The rocket firing on the border at Wagah over the weekend was given a different twist by army headquarters.

'Pakistan is heralding the coming of our all women battalion, which is another feather in the cap of India,' quipped a defence official.