MERA DESH MAHAN

My countrymen let us examine some facts.

1. Money lost in illicit financial outflow since independence $ 462 Billion - Action taken by governments: A half hearted effort to ask Swiss banks details of the money.

2. 2 G spectrum scam $ 40 Billion : Action taken: CBI raiding the home of few accused after only 2 years of scandal, SC only asking questions and no judgements and PM saying JPC not required ( read the diary has my name ) . And yes a SC retd judge given the post retirement job to investigate.

3. Commonwealth Scam $ 1.7 Billion : Action taken : CBI inquiry and the Boss is ruling party politician so only his cronies are raided. No attempts to recover the money by the government.

4. Jharkhand money laundering by Chief Minister: $886 Million : Action taken : CBI still investigating. A tribal Chief Minister sent to jail for sometime. Why bother more its tax payers money not personal funds of ruling elite ?

5.Housing loan Scam $ 221 Million : Action taken : CBI inquiry is on ..... its small scam .... will not effect the banks ... cover up dude !

6. Adarsh Housing Scam : Less than $ 10 Million : Appoint some retired judges who can probe it. Don't make too much fuss close aids of Congress high command has benami flats in the building.

Impact we are only 87 out of 178 nations in most corrupt nations and if we slip few places no big deal ! We are born to rule and swindle this sonay ki chidiya.

Jai Hind ....

Thank You Suresh for your honesty and dedication to journalism and the nation. You make us proud.

I K Gujral

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

Aaj Ki Aawaz

Ex CJI is in a soup!!!!

To let off Raja he did stoop!!

Had he taken cognizance of letter that named Raja Spectrum Waala!!!

There would not have been 'SC CJI let him off' halaa (noise)!!

From his NHRC post he should resign!!!!

Though he'll say this would be 'acceptance of guilt ka sign'!!!!

Because he's still adamant that he did not do any wrong!!!!!

And he too may say ' I'm being harassed because to backward class I belong'!

Radia and her associates have been raided…… too late!!!!

All premises were 'professionally cleaned' as for okay to raid CBI did wait!!

The cleaning must have been done under a CA's supervision!!

Because what slueths would take away he could envision!!

As it is people in this line of work do have a secret hideout!!!!

From their known premises they keep sensitive material 'out'!!!

In her case maybe the hideout is in London!!!!!

As we know transfer of documents can easily be done!!

Praful calls Radia a 'financial terrorist'!!!

He's in a garb of a Neta an extreme kind of opportunist!!!

Imagine our Aviation Minister is alleged to be a front for Kingfisher and Jet!!!!

And it is rumored that even in the Boeing Deal 'substantial maal he did get'!

One must not forget Praful is part of Pawar's gang!!!

By the looks of it this gang's 'till' (cash machine) during UPA 1 and 2 really rang!!!!!

CBI says Kalmadi and gang are hindering investigation!!!!

But I do not understand 'in arresting Kalmadi' CBI's hesitation!!!

CBI keeps says we are strengthening our case against him and his gang!!!!!

Seems whenever the file for raiding him came on CBI Boss's table 'phone rang'!!!

So now a desperate CBI is using another ploy to cuff him!!!!!

But ultimately CBI has to obey Congress's whim!!!!

And we all know why Congress does not have the guts to permit his arrest??????

Whenever arrest possibility comes up from high up in Congress order comes 'please rest'!

And Kalmadi should be also thankful to Raja Spectrum Waala!!!!

Raja's scam made his scam look a lot less kaala!!

And his scam moved out of the headlines .... from page 1 to page 5!!!!

People say post Raja's scam 'hitting the fan' Kalmadi all of a sudden 'became alive'!!

Really UPA has damaged India's reputation and made us look like Republic de Kela!!!!

And Indians at the hand of UPA ne stinging inflation hai jhela!!!!

While those in power raked it in we suffered and paid the price!!!!

They raked in tonnes of money and poor Indians thought twice before buying 1 Kg. of rice!

Confucius says……Really Mohna will go down in history as an honest man who led a dishonest Sarkaar!!!!

Imaandar aadmi ke raaj mein imaandaari ki haar!!!!

Adds……. Jaha Sarkaar ki daal daal pe 'wheeler aur dealer' karte hai basera!!!!

Woh Bharat Desh hai mera!!!!!

Bharat Kumar

Have RIL & Tata group lost their clout?
Have the Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) being headed by Mukesh Ambani and Tata group being headed by Ratan lost their clout? This question is hot topic of discussion in corridors of power and business circles. This debate has been triggered over the manner in which Government of India (GOI) is tightening its noose around Ms. Neera Radia who used to work for both industrial majors.

Empanelment process of 1981 batch starts
Process of empanelment of 1981 batch IAS officers to the rank of Additional Secretary in the Government of India has commenced.Circulaion of CRs has started.

Air Marshal Brown to be Air Chief
Air Marshal Brown is going to be next Air Chief on April 1.

Mishra to be CMD of Cotton Corporation of India
B K Mishra is being tipped to be new CMD of the Cotton Corporation of India.He is presently with the NTC.

Ms Shukla to return from World Bank
Ms Shyamala Shukla who is currently Advisor to the Executive Director of the World Bank in Washington is going to return to India in 2011. She is 1990 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre.

Manipur govt. seeks return of its five IAS officers
The Manipur government has requested the central government's Ministry of Personnel to relieve its five IAS officers who have completed their central deputation. They are: Rajesh Kumar (1998 batch) and presently posted as ED in FCI; Rajesh Aggarwal (1994 batch) presently posted as Director in Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Vineet Joshi (1992 batch) presently posted as Chairman of CBSE; Ameising Luikham (1981 batch) presently posted as Joint Secretary in Ministry of Minority Affairs and S.K. Dev Burman (1988 batch) presently posted as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Labour.

National Museum, Delhi, to observe foundation day
The National Museum Delhi of which Administrator (Director General) is Dr. C.V. Ananda Bose is going to celebrate its foundation day on December 18, 2010. Dr. Bose who is an IAS officer of the 1976 batch & belongs to the Kerala cadre is also Vice Chancellor, national museum institute in the Ministry of Culture, Government of India (GOI).

Sinha likely to be elevated as IG in RPF
S.C. Sinha, DIG, Hubli, is likely to be promoted as IG in RPF. He is Railway Protection Force (RPF) cadre officer of 1986 batch.

Ms. Mishra to join UN in Italy
Ms. Sonal V. Mishra, DCP, Chennai, has been appointed in Public Affairs at the U.N. Mission, Italy. She is an IPS officer of the 2000 batch who belongs to the Tamil Nadu cadre.

Kaun Banega Meghalaya's DGP? (2)
As the grapevine has it, Prem Singh (1977 batch) is one of the five IPS officers who are in the run for the post of DGP, Meghalaya. His is an unknown entity.

Process started for filling up Jt. Secretary's post in MHA
A circular has been issued to all state governments to fill up the post of Joint Secretary, Naxal Management in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). This post fell vacant due to posting of Kashmir Singh as ADG in CISF. Post of J.S., Naxal Management is equivalent to the IG rank.

Khanna is PS to Telecom Minister
Ranjan Khanna is new PS to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal. He is 1994 batch IRS (C&CE ) officer.

Dr. Kumar tipped to be Director Finance (SAIL)
As the grapevine has it, Dr. Rajesh Kumar, private secretary (PS) to Saugata Ray, MOS for Urban Development in Government of India (GOI), is likely to be appointed as Director (Finance), Steel Authority of India (SAIL).He is an IPS officer of the1990 batch who belongs to the West Bengal cadre.

Rathi poised to join NIA
As the grapevine has it, Rakesh Rathi, SP, Jamui, is likely to be appointed as SP in the central government's National Investigation Agency (NIA).He is an IPS officer of the 2002 batch who belongs to the Bihar cadre.

Chandigarh to be promoted as a tourist's destination
The Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited (CITCO), Chandigarh is embarking on a plan to develop Chandigarh as a tourist's destination. This was disclosed by D.K. Tiwari Managing Director (MD) of CITCO. He told whipersinthecorridors.com that Golf tourism will be promoted in a big way. For this Tiwari said "we have tied up with concerning travel & tour operators." Accordingly, those coming to play golf in Chandigarh will get a complimentary facility to play in a golf course. Under this room tariff of a hotel besides return fare by Shatabdi Express from Delhi is included, he said. Chandigarh has got three golf courses. Tiwari is an IAS officer of the 1994 batch who belongs to the Punjab cadre.

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.Those who are in the fray are:Prateep Chaudhary ,Diwakar Gupta , Hemant Contractor, & Krishna Kumar .

Maj Gen Chaudhary to go to 9th Core
Additional DG Military Intelligence Major General Chaudhary is likely to move on promotion to 9th Core Himachal Pradesh.

DRM Mumbai to be from Traffic Wing
Grapevine has it that the next Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) in Mumbai would be from Traffic Wing. The present incumbent M C Chauhan is retiring in April 2011.

Prabhat transferred to MEA Headquarters
Manish Prabhat (1996), presently Counsellor in Embassy of India, is posted to MEA Headquarters.

IPS changes in Gujarat
There is IPS reshuffle in Gujarat.Mohan Jha will now be DCB from the traffic department.Brajesh Jha has been moved as DCP, chief minister's security. Jha will replace Rajiv Ranjan Bhagat.Satish Varma has been transferred from the Gujarat housing board to traffic department. The post of DCP, Zone 5 has now been occupied by deputy superintendent of police, Kutch, Wabang Zamir, who has been replaced by JN Rajgor.
Deepak Swaroop and Tirthraj, the ADGPs of Arms unit and Anti Corruption Bureau respectively, have been transferred to SC/ST Cell and Arms unit. SP of Sabarmati Jail, VM Parghi had been transferred to IGP, Border Range.

Saxena is new Special RC Orissa in Delhi
V K Saxena has been appointed Special RC Orissa in Delhi.1985 batch IAS officer Saxena will replace Satyanarayan who has been moved to Bhubneshwar.

MoS in Pakistan dropped

Abdul Qayum Jatoi Pakistan's MOS (Defence Production) has been dropped from the council of Ministers for 'criticisng the government for corruption and making the bizarre demand of equal share in the booty'. Mr Makhdoom Shahabuddin, MOS (Health) has been given additional charge of defence production

NPCC signs MOU with WAPCOS
National Projects Construction Corporation Limited, a pioneer and undisputed leader in the field of construction and M/s WAPCOS Limited, a Mini Ratna PSU have signed an MOU on 15th December 2010 for identifying and bidding jointly, infrastructure projects in India & abroad relating to Irrigation, flood control, water supply projects etc. and on award, executing the same jointly.

The MOU was signed by A. K. Jhamb, CMD, NPCC and R. K. Gupta, CMD, WAPCOS where Director (F), NPCC, Ravendra Garg was also present alongwith other senior officers of NPCC and WAPCOS. As per terms of this MOU, NPCC and WAPCOS will jointly make efforts to secure identified projects for related fields on mutually exclusive basis.

While NPCC is engaged in construction and project management services in India and abroad for Institutional Buildings, Townships & Other Residential Buildings, Indo Bangla Border Fencing, Roads, Bops & Flood Lighting, Dams, Barrages & Canals, Hydro-Electric Power Projects, Thermal Power Projects, Tunnels & Underground Projects, Bridges & Flyovers, Industrial Structures, Surface Transport Projects, Sewerage & Water Supply Projects, Environment Projects, WAPCOS undertakes projects on turnkey basis from concept to commissioning, provides consultancy for projects including design in Irrigation, Drainage and Water Management,Ground Water Exploration, Development of Wells and Minor Irrigation,Flood Control, Reclamation and River Morphology,Watershed Management, Dryland Farming, Dam and Reservoir Engineering, Hydro Power Engineering, Thermal Power, Transmission and Distribution, Water Supply and Sanitation, Environmental Engineering, Ports & Harbours and Inland Waterways,Rural and Urban Development etc.

NBCC discusses status of implementation of CVC integrity pact (UPDATED)
V.P. Das, CMD, NBCC alongwith CVC approved independent external monitors S.B. Ghosh Dastidar & M.M.K. Sardana, discussing the status of implementation of the integrity pact at NBCC.

Partha S Bhattacharyya awarded SCOPE Special Award of the Jury (UPDATED)
Partha S Bhattacharyya, Chairman, Coal India Limited, has been awarded with the coveted "SCOPE Special Award of the Jury". The award was given to him by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh at an official award ceremony "MoU Excellence Awards & SCOPE Excellence Awards 2008-09" held in New Delhi. The function was jointly organized by Department of Public Enterprises and Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE). Coal India had, under the Chairmanship of Bhattacharyya, earlier won the "SCOPE Gold Trophy 2007-08 (Institutional category)" for Excellence and Outstanding Contribution to Public Sector Management in the previous year. SCOPE (Standing Conference of Public Enterprises - an apex body of Government owned Public Enterprises under Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises) Excellence Awards have been conceptualized and instituted to recognize the contribution of Public Enterprises and to encourage outstanding persons for their hard work and leadership qualities.

Tarika Roy is new Director ICWA (UPDATED)
Ms. Tarika Roy (IRAS 1997) has joined MEA as Director in Indian Council of World Affairs.

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
Samal resigns from Zicom Electronic Board
Dr. B. Samal, Independent Director, Zicom Electronic Security Systems has resigned from the Board of the Company w.e.f. December 14, 2010.

Sharma is Non Exec. Chairman Thomas Cook India
Thomas Cook (India) Limited has appointed Mahendra Kumar Sharma as the Non-Executive Chairman w.e.f. December 14, 2010.

Menon on Thomas Cook India Board
Madhavan Menon, Managing Director, has been nominated by Thomas Cook UK Limited, the promoter as its representative on the Board of Thomas Cook (India) Limited w.e.f. December 14, 2010.

IRB Infra appoints Addl. Director
IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited has appointed Sunil Talati, as an Additional Director of the Company with effect from December 13, 2010.

Sharma is Company Secy. S.E. Investments
S.E. Investments Limited has appointed Vishal Sharma as a Company Secretary with effect from December 11, 2010.

Gadkari is VP (Planning), Grey Mumbai
Grey Mumbai has appointed Kavita Gadkari as Vice President(Planning). She was previously with Stellar Search, Dubai.

Sinha is SEBI Chairman?
UTI AMC's U K Sinha has been selected as SEBI chairman replacing CB Bhave. The latter has not been offered an extension by the Finance Ministry.

Likhite is Company Secy. Sanghvi Movers
Sanghvi Movers Limited has appointed Rajesh P. Likhite as Company Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer of the Company with effect from December 6, 2010.

Nayyar is now CEO
Apul Nayyar has taken over as CEO of Future Capital's retail financial services.

Jadhav is COO of Vinsura Wines
Gopal Jadhav has been appointed chief operating officer of Vinsura Wines.

POWERGRID conferred with MoU Excellence Award and Scope Excellence Award
Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID), a Navratna Company and the Central Transmission Utility (CTU) of the country, has been conferred with the prestigious 'MoU Excellence Award' for the year 2008-09 by the Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises for being the top performer in the Energy Sector. POWERGRID has also been bestowed with the Scope Award for Excellence and Outstanding Contribution to the Public Sector Management (2008-09) - Large Scale PSE Category. Both the awards were presented to S.K. Chaturvedi, CMD, POWERGRID by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in a ceremony held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on Tuesday. SCOPE Excellence awards have been instituted by SCOPE, the apex body of Public Enterprises, to recognize and encourage the contribution and outstanding performance of Public Enterprises for their vision in creating national wealth.

Arup Roy Choudhury gets SCOPE Excellence Award
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh presented the SCOPE Excellence Award Gold Trophy in individual category to Arup Roy Choudhury, Chairman & Managing Director, NTPC Limited at the SCOPE Excellence Award function held in New Delhi today. He has been awarded for his outstanding contribution to the public sector. Roy Choudhury is a dynamic leader with proven abilities to achieve transformational changes in the sector. He seeks to position NTPC a Maharatna enterprise on course to become the largest and best power producer in the world. NTPC is the largest power generating company in India with an installed capacity of over 32694 MW operating 28 power stations across the country. Choudhury, has the distinction of becoming the youngest Chief Executive Officer of a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) at the age of 44 years when he joined as Chairman & Managing Director, National Buildings Construction Corporation Limited (NBCC) on April 03, 2001. His career spans over 32 years of outstanding contribution in the fields of engineering, general management, strategic management and business leadership.

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)


WHO ARE MORE CORRUPT-POLITCIANS,BUREAUCRATS AND JOURNALISTS ?

All are equally corrupt - given the opportunity and the guaranteed secrecy of the deal. The fatal flaw exists in all of us.

Anil Pradhan

Of course bureaucrats

Anil Bansal

The entire nation is corrupt. Let us stop talking of politicians, bureacrats, journalists or for that matter anybody else.

Yasah Pal Verma

Let us not try to use superlatives for the complete word "CORRUPTION". You can't and should not use more, less or the most with an act like CORRUPTION. Either one is corrupt or honest. One can't escape by saying one is less corrupt and you can't say some one is more corrupt. There are honest politicians, Bureaucrats and media people and there are corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and media people. Being corrupt is not a desirable trait and honesty is not a quality it is expected and desirable.

H S Kingra

Attack on Iraq is a good example of corruption and procedure of corruption. It is very good example to destroy one country. It is difficult to say who is more responsible/ first in corruption i.e. in Bureaucrats, politicians, journalism, etc.

Ramesh Chhabra

All three - politicians, bureaucrats and journalists are equal partners and are corrupted by the corporates and the people who want undue favours, illegal decisions and out of turn action on their behalf. Morally weak politicians, officers and journos succumb to the temptation and also feather their own nests in the bargain. If the corporates and people want good and honest governance they should refuse to pay for favours and expose those who demand bribes. The funds of political parties should also be subject to audit and these should be made public every year. Similarly the assets of all politicians and officers should be scrutinized and be in the public domain. Any abnormal increase should be explained by them to the CVC.

S Swarup

If the criteria is the amount of money accumulated by corrupt means then, perhaps, politicians can be categorised as the most corrupt. But the bureaucrats and journalists are the brain behind such activities. They are the ones who device novel methods of corruption. So I feel all three have an equal role and no particular group can be identified as the most corrupt.

P K Kailasa Babu

Some practical tips on career advancement

What's in a Name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Whether it is called ACR or APAR it makes no difference. Do you want to get Outstanding ACR. Here are some very effective time tested methods ?

1. Ignore the whole world & remember your Reporting Officer is the only person who matters. No one else matters. Do only that which he/she likes.

2. When Reporting Officer invites you to his child's birthday or marriage take expensive gift costing around Rs.5000 to 10,000 minimum. Remember your Reporting Officer claims he is very honest so he has provided you a legitimate platform through which you can pay him for his services of writing outstanding ACR.

3. Never forget to take Diwali & New Year gift, it will be noted if you ignore at own peril.

4. During sarkari tour in India or abroad, treat the reporting officer to free drinks & food at expensive restaurant. You will be surprised how next time Reporting Officer will take up your case for other foreign trips & fight your cause.

5. Submit file or search for occasion to recommend name of your Reporting officer for foreign tour or even better list out his imaginary paper achievements, praise him, prepare write up for recommending him for Prime Ministers Award. Do all this behind his back & through level jumping, (remember this is the rarest of rare occasion) so that he doesn?t know & you can be self modest, make a mysterious face so he is curious to know what you are up to. He will be relieved & pleasantly shocked & will chortle & repeat the story to seniors at numerous forums & you get free publicity & will become a known Boss Bhakt & in demand. This is called customer delight.

6. Please avoid bombastic ideas like hard work, honesty, ethics in administration etc. these text book values should be left to be examined every year by the administrative reforms commissions & remain forgotten between its pages, till the next commission brushes up its pages. JAI HIND.

Ritu Sharma

Something is rotten in the State of Denmark

Everyone knows that time schedules as laid down by DOPT for writing ACRs is not adhered to strictly but even then the Reporting Officers have been liberal & have written the ACRs of officials. In many cases the officials do not write the date of submission of ACR deliberately because of obvious reason to hide late submission. If date is not written by the official & also by the reporting & reviewing officers but ACR is received very late still it is accepted because there is no way to prove late submission, but if date is given by these respective officers honestly then such ACR can be refused for placing in records. After all honesty has to be punished. Everyone must connive & be hand in glove with an unethical system. What kind of arbitrary system is this? DOPT should not allow such pick & choose arbitrariness. DOPT has been promoting CSS officers as Directors without ensuring all ACRs are up to date. Recently a curious case has come to light in the Ministry of Urban Development in which clear integrity certificate was not given by the Reporting Officer to some Deputy Secretary level Officers & the Reviewing Officer rejected the ACRs on the ground of late submission as he did not want the reasons of giving adverse integrity to be known to DOPT as it would expose the wrong doings of Reviewing Officer who was himself involved & hence protecting them. Strange are the ways of life!

Lok Nath Mehra

Consolidated instructions of Department of Personnel and Training

The instructions of DP&T for the officers appointed from January granting Rs.7,450/- (pre-revised) have been implemented by all the Ministries/Departments and thereby putting all the officers appointed before 2006 junior to them in terms of monetary benefit. Some Ministries/Departments have stepped up the salaries of the officers appointed before January 2006 but the other Ministries/Departments have been waiting consolidated instructions from Department of Personnel and Training. In this connection, it is humbly urged upon that the employees should not be put to a monetary loss because of the lack of coordination among all the Ministries/Departments in the Central Government. Department of Personnel and Training may kindly consider issuing necessary instructions in this regard.

V P Sharma

Phone tapping : GoI in a catch 22 situation

The Supreme Court of India in a 1997 decision had ruled that the right to hold a telephone conversation in the privacy of one's home or office without interference can certainly be claimed as the right to privacy. So any instance of phone tapping, unless carried out through a lawful procedure is unconstitutional. The court laid down certain procedures for carrying out phone tapping:

The orders for phone tapping can be issued only by the home secretary of the government of India and the home secretaries of state governments. In urgent cases, the power of issuance can be delegated to an officer below the rank of joint secretary. Each order should mention the reasons for phone tapping and is applicable for only two months

The orders should be specific with regard to names, persons and places.

Although the order for phone tapping can be extended, it should not be done for more than six months

Each order is subject to examination by a review committee, consisting of Cabinet secretary, law secretary and telecommunication secretary.

The review should be done within two months of the order of interception

It should justify that it is not possible to collect the required information through other means

The authorities need to keep a record of the phone tapping and destroy them once their retention is found to be unnecessary.

However, Section 69 of the Indian Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 allows any government official or policemen to listen to calls, read SMSs and emails and monitor websites visited by any person, if essential, in the interests of the country. As per the amended act, no warrant is required from a magistrate to do so. The amended law has expanded the powers of the government to authorize phone tapping by dropping all references to public safety or emergencies. The section allows for decryption, encryption and monitoring of communication to investigate any offence, cognizable or not.

The Supreme Court has now put GoI in a catch 22 situation. If Radia phones were tapped for reasons of spying as the government has claimed in the court than why did the Income Tax department tap the phones? Why did IB not tap the Phones? And if IB also tapped the phones why were these records not submitted to the Supereme Court when it had asked for them recently. Why were the recordings not destroyed if phones did not reveal she was a spy. SC will surely go into all these aspects of phone tapping and may be examine the phone tapping bill which was piloted by Home Minister in the parliament and had led to long debate between him and Arun Jaitley. We have an honest and upright Chief Justice heading the courts and we expect a judicious judgement from the courts.

Soli S