Among the papers is a "top secret" and "confidential" document dated August 25, 2009, from the DGIT to a CBDT member. Annexed to this are internal evaluation reports for June and July 2009 and, interestingly, a comment providing context for a remark made on the whispersinthecorridors.com website.

This document has a flood of names of individuals and companies: Tatas, Ambani/ Reliance, Mittal/Bharti Telecom and others, including several politicians (prominently A. Raja). And then there's a claim that on Radia's and Kanimozhi's behalf, Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi were negotiating with the Congress for ministries for DMK members, particularly Raja.

Bangalore Mirror

Contact-suresh.mehrotra@yahoo.com> & <mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com>

Aaj Ki Aawaz

I'm just about to get up and go when an elderly gentleman comes and sits down on the bench.

EG: You must be wanting to go and clean your ears after all that you've heard!

Me: Disturbing!

EG: I'm really appalled by Congress willing to waste Parliament's precious time just because it lacks the numbers in the JPC!

Me: Yes such a huge scam..... in fact the biggest........ imagine what has been lost could fund 4 NREGA schemes!

EG: What's the name of that Lady who shed croc tears when Sonia refused to become PM!!!

Me: Renuka Chowdhury

EG: Now Congress has brought her out of hibernation because of her ability to browbeat participants in TV Debates. The Lady keeps saying Opposition has subverted Parliament. Ask the Lady isn't JPC an arm of the Parliament?

Me: What is your perception of Manmohan Singh ji's honesty?

EG: To put it bluntly he's like a Doctor who refuses to use his medical knowledge to treat diseases! He's not been able to apply his honesty! Useless fellow!

Me: Harsh words!

EG: See honesty is not like a showpiece .... it has to be practiced. What was the need for Manmohan to defend Raja in Parliament????

Me: He must have got orders from Sonia to do so!

EG: Well he could have proposed that Sonia field Congress's firefighter Pranab Da to douse the Raja fire!!!

Me: She used Manmohan's honest tag to cover up Raja's chori.......firefighter Pranab lacked the credibility to do this cover up!!! Karuna must have given Congress an ultimatum!

EG: You make it sound as if it is ' majboori ka doosra naam Sonia Gandhi'!!!!! Sad first the numbers game forced Congress to side with Raja..... and now the numbers game is forcing Congress to reject Opposition's JPC demand!

Me: But if Congress is not involved it would have after putting up a fight agreed to Opposition's JPC demand! Seems somewhere Congress too is involved! After all Congress would have taken a share of the pie!!!!

EG: At one time the name Tata was synonymous to propriety!

Me: Yes Tata's were considered to be above political wheeling and dealing!

EG: Rotte... sorry.... Rattan changed all that! Rather than accepting his faults he wants the airing of the tapes to be banned! Image wise from a Safari he's downsized himself to a Nano!

Me: What about the CVC?????

EG: CVC wohi joh Party in power ko bhaye!!!! The same goes when CBI's Boss is selected!!

Me: Today's papers say Diggy Raja has tried to put the blame for 26/11 on RSS!!!!

EG: Haven't you read the recent WikiLeaks which say Congress plays 'religion politics'...... it says Congress played the minority card post 26/11!!!

Me: I'm sure the Americans must be laughing at India. They must be saying on one side India wants Headley and on the other side Congress, which is in power, is trying to put the blame on RSS!!! Maybe tomorrow they'll say Headley's real name is Harish Kumar!!!! Pakistan will use this WikiLeak to embarrass India!!!

EG: The fools haven't learnt a lesson from the Bihar debacle that Indian Muslims have moved on from being enticed by such talk! And isn't Diggy's 'Karkare felt insecure' a bit too late in the day.......stinks of being 'made up' or figment of his imagination!!!! Even Karkare's wife has said this statement of Diggy will be used by Pakistan!!!

Me: India has been let down by its Netas...... but then it's we who vote these people to power!!

EG: Well Bihar shows there is a change taking place.... people want performance!!!

Me: I often wonder all those who have laid down their lives for the Independence of India and in the wars that Independent India has fought must be looking down from up there and saying ' did we sacrifice our lives for this'?????

EG: Laaye theh toofan se woh kishti nikaal ke, humaare Netaon ne bech di kishti ek ek phataa (plank) nikaal ke!!

Bharat Kumar

Interview for SBI Chairman on December 16
Interview for selection of new Chairman of the State Bank of India((SBI)will be held on December 16, 2010.Among others in the fray are Hemant Contractor, Prateep Chaudhary & Krishna Kumar. If all goes well, then lady luck may smile on Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya.

Interview for SEBI Chief today
Interview to select new Chief of the SEBI is going to take place this afternoon.

50 direct recruit IPS officers resign
At least 50 IPS officers, selected directly through the UPSC civil services exam, have - citing "better prospects" and "personal reasons" behind their quitting the jobs - resigned over the past seven years i.e. between 2003 and 2009.

Will Ravneet Kaur go to Washington ?
Name of Joint Secretary Banking Ravneet Kaur has started doing the round for the post of Executive Director, World Bank Washington .She is 1988 batch IAS officer of Punjab cadre.

Pyarelal to join International Centre of Arts ?
Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting V B Pyarelal is likely to join Internaional Centre of Arts. He is 1983 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

Lalli to go ?
CEO of the Prasar Bharti B S Lalli is going.Formal announcement to this effect is expected soon.

NTRO Chairman gets extension
Acting Chairman of the NTRO P V Kumar has been given extension till further orders.

85 SP level posts are vacant in GoI
As many as 85 posts of SP level officers are currently vacant in the Government of India.

IPS officers unwilling for deputation ?
It seems IPS officers are not willing to go on deputation to the Government of India. This is evident from the fact that MHA has started sending reminders to the State Governments at the interval of every fifteen days.

Anil Goswami in race for new CS, J & K
As the grapevine has it, Anil Goswami is one of the four IAS officers of Jammu & Kashmir cadre who are in the race for the post of Chief Secretary as S.S. Kapur present incumbent will retire on January 31,2011. Goswami is an IAS officer of the 1978 batch who belongs to Jammu & Kashmir cadre. Presently on central deputation, he is Additional Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA).His chances seems to be bright.

Puneet Kansal to be new PS to Dinsha Patel
Puneet Kansal is going to be appointed as new private secretary (PS) to Indian Minister of State Ministry of Micro, Medium and Small enterprises (Independent charge) Dinsha J. Patel. Kansal is an IAS officer of the 1996 batch who belongs to the Sikkim cadre.

Sumita to go to China
Sumita Dawra is being tipped to be Counsellor, (Economic) in the Embassy of India, Beijing. She is 1991 batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre.

Mystery behind Punjab govt.'s bankruptcy ?
Punjab has always been a prosperous state. It's prosperity can be gauged from the fact that there are maximum number of Mercedes in Ludhiana in Punjab. Still, the economy of the Punjab government is in shambles. Why is it so? What is the mystery?

Indian Education Service in the offing
Indian Education Service is in the offing. An expert group headed by the former Education Secretary Anil Bodia has been constituted for the purpose.

Outgoing CBI Chief doing Ph d
Outgoing CBI Chief Ashwani Kumar is currently doing Ph d from Himachal University. He is retired 1973 batch IPS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre.

Maj. General J.P. Nehra elevated
Maj. General J.P. Nehra (Additional D.G.) Assam Rifles, Shillong on promotion has taken over as Lt. General at HQ 16 Corps, Army, Nagrota Jammu&Kashmir.

Ms. Surekha Sahoo posted as Director ,Social Justice
Ms. Surekha Sahoo on central deputation has been appointed as Director, Social Justice and Empowerment .She is an IRSE officer of the1996 batch.

Dr. Neeraj Mittal appointed as Director, Petroleum
Dr. Neeraj Mittal on central deputation has been appointed as Director, Petroleum . Dr. Mittal is ex-private secretary (PS) to MOS(C&I) Jyotiraditya Scindia .He is an IAS officer of the1992 batch who belongs to the Tamil Nadu cadre.
(We said this on December 6 )

Sudesh Kumar back from the UN
Sudesh Kumar who on an assignment to the UN is now back to India. He is an IPS officer of the 1987 batch who belongs to the Kerala cadre.

1986 batch IAS is now PS in Jharkhand
Three 1986 batch IAS officers principal secretary to CM DK Tiwari, rural development secretary SK Satpathi and HRD secretary Mridula Sinha have been promoted to the rank of principal secretary in JKharkhand.

Suri out of race for Foreign secr post
With the present Foreign Secretary Ms. Nirupama Rao getting extension upto July 2011, major contender for the post Nalin Suri is now out of race for the said post.

Kaun Banega Meghalaya's DGP?
The race for the top cop is hotting up in cold Meghalaya. S.B. Kakati, DGP retires on January 31, 2011. Those out of the race are: W.R. Marbaniang 1975 officer, charge-sheeted by the CBI for destroying evidence in a murder case and A.K. Pradhan, 1977 officer who does not fulfill one of the newly interpreted clause of one year service of the Police Act.

Kotalwar transferred to PMI Geneva
Hemant Kotalwar (1996), presently Director in MOS (PK)'s Office, MEA, is posted to PMI Geneva. Ms. Garima Gupta to join in Arunachal Pradesh

Ms. Garima Gupta goes to Arunachal Pradesh
Ms. Garima Gupta who is Director Industries in Goa is now going to join in the Arunachal Pradesh. She is an AGMUT cadre IAS officer of the 2004 batch.

ISS officers get SAG
As many as 85 ISS officers have been promoted to SAG Level.

Director Statistics gets 3 months extension
A.K. Shukla who is Director in the Ministry of Statistics, on central deputation, has got three months extension in his tenure. He is an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer of the 1986 batch who belongs to the AGMUT cadre.

Pushpendra Kumar joins in Arunachal Pradesh
Pushpendra Kumar who was earlier Additional Commissioner of Police Delhi North District has joined in Arunachal Pradesh. He is an IPS officer of the 2006 batch who belongs to the AGMUT cadre.

Vikramjit Singh joins in Arunachal Pradesh
Vikramjit Singh who was earlier Additional Commissioner of Police Delhi West District has joined in Arunachal Pradesh. He is an IPS officer of the 2006 batch who belongs to the AGMUT cadre.

Milind Dumbere joins in Mizoram
Milind Dumbere has joined in Mizoram. He is an IPS officer of the 2006 batch who belongs to the AGMUT cadre.

Munda to enter Jharkhand assembly from Kharsawan constituency
Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda is going to contest election from Kharsawan constituency that had been quit by Mangal Singh Soy, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from the said constituency.

IAS changes on the anvil in Gujarat
As the grapevine has it, there is going to be a reshuffle of IAS officers in Gujarat.

Suspension of IPS officer in Delhi revoked
Suspension of IPS officer I D Shukla has been revoked by the MHA.

Chawla and Sinha get new assignment
Prabhu Chawla, Editor (Languages) at the India Today Group, is leaving the Group to join The New Indian Express in place of Aditya Sinha, who is joining DNA as Editor-in-Chief.

Rajasthan Govt promotes IFS officer Sakarwal
The Rajasthan government on Monday promoted Kailash Chandra Sakarwal Deputy Conservator of Forests, Dungarpur to the Selection grade with effect from January 1, 1998. Shkarwal is an IFS officer of the 1985 batch.

Raajendran transferred as Addl. CEO, TN
D. Raajendiran, IAS, Director of Town Panchayats, Tamil Nadu has been transferred as Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Public (Elections) Department. He is an IAS officer of the 1995 batch.

Amudha transferred as Addl. CEO, TN
P. Amudha, IAS, Project Officer / Member Secretary, Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society has been transferred as Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Public (Elections) Department. She will look after the work related to Planning, Implementation and
Coordination of all the Programmes / activities related to Voters Education and Electoral Participation. She is an IAS officer of the 1994 batch who hails from the Tamil Nadu cadre.

IS officer Jadhav is no more
Vijay Hanumant Jadhav, Director of Press Information Bureau & National Film Archive of India expired after a heart attack this morning. 43 year old Jadhav was 1995 batch Indian Information Service officer.

RTI

"DATE WITH RTI" COMPLETES TWO YEARS

Joint penalty on PIO & Deemed PIO

Information regarding the rent fixation and related issues were refused to the appellant. Mr. S. K. Nigam, PIO, stated that the assistance of Mr. A. K. Pasi, was sought under Section 5(4) of the RTI Act for providing the information. Mr. Pasi, the deemed PIO, provided the information "As the matter is subjudice in the court of law the information cannot be supplied at this point of time." The CIC noted that this was a denial of information without giving any reasons as per Section 8(1) of the RTI Act. While accepting that the denial of information was made by the deemed PIO, the CIC held that when a completely frivolous denial of information is made, the PIO must also share the blame. For a delay in providing the information of over 100 days, the CIC imposed the maximum penalty of Rs. 25,000/- jointly on the PIO & Deemed PIO.

Comments

The CIC has held that the RTI law holds the PIOs responsible for all decision on matters of law and officers whose assistance is sought under Section 5(4) basically share the administrative responsibility of providing the information. Most PIO's tend to act like
Post-offices, collecting information from the deemed PIO and transmitting them to the appellant. This order would be a wake-up call.

Mr. Alok Mehrotra v. Delhi Labour Welfare Board, GNCTD in Decision No. CIC/DS/A/2009/000011/SG/9083Penalty

- Weekly article by Dr. (Mrs.) Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in), RTI Consultant to IIM, Indore and Co-author of the book: RIGHT TO INFORMATION - LAW AND PRACTICE by Taxmann. (The views are Personal)

CORPORATE
Assaf is Head (Investment Banking), HSBC
HSBC has appointed Samir Assaf as its new head of investment banking.

Obopay appoints Zutshi as Sr VP
Obopay--- a leading mobile banking and payment provider has appointed Gaurav Zutshi as its Senior Vice-President and Global Head of Product
Management

Tata Motors Lucknow Unit bags award
Tata Motors Limited, Lucknow unit, has bagged the Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award for 2009 in the "Best of All" category.

Shah resigns as GM Sanghvi Movers
Jitendra R. Shah has resigned as General Manager Legal and Company Secretary of Sanghvi Movers Ltd with effect from November 23, 2010.

Bhalerao resigns as Director, Sanghvi Movers
Prakash C. Bhalerao has resigned from the post of Director (Independent) from the Board of the Company with effect from December 06, 2010.

Raghavan is Consulting Editor, Vijay Karnataka
E Raghavan has taken over as the Consulting Editor of Vijay Karnataka after resignation of Editor V Bhat

Ericsson Chairman to step down?
Ericsson Chairman, Michael Treschow may step down from his post next year or in 2012.

Ramakrishna to join Polycom
Sudhakar Ramakrishna who has recently quit Motorola will soon be joining Polycom - a video conferencing equipment provider, as Senior Vice President and General manager (Products) and Chief development Officer.

Capgemint appoints Padmanabhan as Head, HR
Consulting firm Capgemint has appointed Rajesh Padmanabhan as Head of Human Resources for India. Prior to Capgemint, Padmanabhan was with Patni Computer Services as Executive Vice Prresident and Global Head (HR).He has also worked with the Oberoi Group and many other prestigious organizations like Essel Propack.

Mukherjee appointed Head (Equities), Ambit Capital.
Saurabh Mukherjee has been appointed as head (Equities) at the Managing Director level by the Ambit Capital.

Dhupar appointed MD (Sales and Marketing), NIVIDIA.
Vishal Dhupar has been appointed as MD (Sales and marketing), South Asia, by the Computer Chips maker NIVIDIA. He will be responsible for management and strategic direction of its business in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan.

FORUM
(The views expressed in this column are of the contributors. We do not owe any responsibility, whatsoever, of the views of our surfers as they are their personal opinion. However, we would also request our contributors not to be personal, directly or indirectly, in presenting their views. Instead of countering the views which ‘X’ has already expressed, our contributors are advised to present their own views. Also be brief, say about 200 words at the most since any views longer than that if eliminated at our end would carry the risk of the contrbutor’s item losing its original essence)


Are policies to be set on personal whims ?

It is learnt that DOPT had returned the names recommended by a cadre authority of 1985 batch officers for empanellment to the posts of Joint Secretaries to Government of India along with the 1990 batch of IAS as they were considering only the 1984 batch for that purpose. Why when the accepted norm(that too is wrong) is a difference of two years. The two year difference also came up arbitrarily during the discussions on the Fourth Pay Commission Report when this browser was Joint secretary in the DOPT. The intention was that the difference between the IAS and other services should not exceed two years. This intention was misconstrued and made into mandatory two years. Then who made it five years. I am told B.K Chaturvedi as Cabinet secretary suggested this as 5 years. How could he do so. Are policies and procedures to be set upon the personal whims of some individuals or on some norms. There is absolutely no justification to keep the difference between the services of the same batch. This is leading to frustration and service divide which is not good for the administration too. Are we not creating a dysfunctional situations where officers of Group A services recruited through UPSC under the same examination are reporting to the officers 4 to 5 years their juniors. This is also depriving the govt. of the talent from other services at that crucial level. Will some one care to look at the problem in an objective manner. The other services should not take this insult lying down. It is high time they unite and ask for parity. But for that first their own cadre authorities should do justice and promote officers to SAG in time. At the moment the Indian Audit & Accounts Service is the only one which is parallel, in fact ahead, of IAS. To some extent even Indian Defence Accounts Service officers are better off. Others fall way behind. Worse of course appear to be Indian Revenue Service(both Income tax and Customs)This is one crucial area of reform so very vital for motivation and morale-boosting.

Aarti Khosla

Truly ironical

It is truly ironical that Dr. Manmohan Singh shall go down in the history as a most honest Prime Minister who presided over a government that has broken all records of corruption. It can happen only in India.

Jai Hind

MB

Don't engage in Page Three gossips

This refers to the item about Nita Ambani going to buy some crockery.

Your website has a very good credibility and in my opinion, you should not engage in Page Three gossip of socialites but only news of substance and importance to your readers who are all interested in being kept informed on serious issues.

I Khan

Logjam in Parliament !

The long jam is a commentary on the games played on the Constitution in the UPA-I & II regime. The Leader of the House in parliament is legitimately the Prime Minister of India, but the UPA has separated the two positions! Nobody is questioning!! Why should any sagacious Indian question when he or she is getting rewarded by Sanads granted to benefit him/her for generations? Were the PM & the LOH the same person, this waste of public money would not have happened. The PM and the LOH are very competent persons, of exceptional skills and could have steered the country out of this silly logjam--that too on unprecedent scams of corruption of a magnitude that India has neither seen earlier nor will see again. But both are hamstrung. Neither can take the final decision nor act on his own. They can only take calls! Is it difficult to make the PM an elected MP of the Lok Sabha and elect him as the Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha? Pranab Mukherji can not be entrusted the authority of the PM for he is too intelligent for the job. Hence, it is the split command that is responsible for no decision or delayed decisions, as in the cases of CWG, 2G or Adarsh. Unless they get the call the two dignitaries can not take any decisions independently. They are not even sure of the right quarters transmitting the call, if one were to go by the photographs of others by the PM's side, in utter violation of the protocol and larger in size by a few mm. Otherwise, can the Ministries of the Government of India releasing these advertisement explain, how does the photograph of a CM is many times larger than that of the PM or Sonia Gandhi? Who is calling the shots really? Our constitutional experts and Media Moghuls need to educate us on the subject>

M L Gupta

Wy Thomas didn't ask for speedy trial ?

I do not want to go into the merits or demerits of CVC, PJ Thomas but a question nags me. Why did he not seek justice and approach Court to get him exonerated, if he was so sure about his honesty, by a speedy trial for him alone. Ex CM Karunakaran wanted a stay and prolong the case since he has apprehensions that he will be punished. But what about Thomas? Is it his laid back style or fear of getting punished made him also hide behind the stay for all these years?

N. George Parambil