The Hindu posted on its website a 14 page electronic document comprising of scanned images of what appear to be correspondence between the CBI, CBDT and internal notes marked "Top Secret".

Page 9 of this document mentions the names "Barkha Dutt" and "Vir Sanghvi" in connection with lobbying the Congress on behalf of DMK's Kanimozhi for Ministerial berths. The references seem to follow a report from a website called Whispers in Corridors and based on what appear to be notes in an "Internal Report" summarizing telephone intercept conversations.

haindavakeralam.com

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

NDA to come out with scams ?
As the grapevine has it, the NDA is going to come out daily with one
scam from the New Year. Several bureaucrats have already started supplying material. Budget session of the Parliament is going to be equally explosive.

Will Neera Radia bounce back ?
Will Neera Radia with her wide contacts bounce back ?.One can only wait and watch.

Cabinet reshuffle postponed
Much awaited reshuffle in the central cabinet being headed by Indian
Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh which was to take place on December
20, 2010 was postponed at 3 pm on December 20, 2010.

BUREAUCRACY

Empanelment of 1979 batch IPS takes place
Empanelment of 1979 batch IPS officers to the rank of ADG in the Government of India has taken place.

New CBDT chief to serve till his retirement
As the grapevine has it, the authorities have planned to have Sudhir Chandra as new CBDT Chairman till his retirement.1973 batch IRS officer Chandra will take over on January 1.

Prasad to be Member Postal Board
Kamleshwar Prasad who is CPMG Bihar is poised to be a Member in the Postal Services Board.

CSB considers appointment of 6 officers as Directors
In a meeting held on December 20, 2010 the considered officers for the appointment as Directors in different Ministries of Government of India. There is one IAS officer and five belongs to the other services. An officer will be joining each of the Ministries. They are: DONER, DIPP, Health, Finance - an IAS officer while two of them will be joining the HRD Ministry.

Ms. Anjali Shrivastava appointed as Joint Secretary & FA Coal
Ms. Anjali Shrivastava has been appointed as Joint Secretary and Financial Advisor (FA) in the Coal Ministry. She is an officer of the IA&AS cadre & belongs to the 1983 batch. Presently she is Executive Director (ED) Personnel in Food Corporation of India (FCI).
(We said this on November 22,2010).

Empanelment of 1992 batch IFS for Jt. Secr by April
Empanelment of 1992 batch IFS officers for the post of Joint Secretary is likely to be completed by April 2011.

Ajay Kumar Singh appointed as Director, MHA
Ajay Kumar Singh on central deputation has been appointed as Director in Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).He is an IPS officer of the1989 batch who belongs to Jharkhand cadre.

V.J. Kurien to look after charge of Rubber Board's head
V.J. Kurien Chairman, Spices Board will also look after the additional charge of Chairman, Rubber Board for a period of 3 months. He is an IAS officer of the1983 batch who belongs to the Kerala cadre.

Vipul Mittra takes Rannotsav to new heights
The Rannotsav in Kutch region of Gujarat has attained new heights. Thanks to the imaginative skills of Vipul Mittra Secretary Tourism to the Gujarat government the festival is going to attract 10000 tourists. An all time high record.The three day carnival has now turned into a 30 days affair. Vipul Mittra who is an IAS officer of the 1986 batch told <whispersinthecorridors.com> that tents were overbooked. Replying to a question he said people were paying Rs.15000 per night's stay in bungas i.e. huts. It is worth mentioning that Vipul Mittra was instrumental in getting globally famous Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan to be brand ambassador for the Gujarat tourism and that too free of cost. Aggressive marketing coupled with innovations the Rannotsav is proving to be a big draw. Mittra belongs to the Gujarat cadre.

Ms. Deepti Uma Shankar poised to be a Director in DoPT
As the grapevine has it Ms. Deepti Uma Shankar on central deputation is poised to be a Director in DoPT. She is an IAS officer of the1993 batch who belongs to Haryana cadre.

Official list of 1990 batch IPS empanelled for IG's post
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the empanelment of 75 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers of 1990 batch for holding the posts of Inspector General or equivalent at the Centre. Those empanelled are Sanjay Singh, Tajendra Singh Luthra and Dependra Pathak of AGMU cadre, Bishnu Ram Rana and Y K Gautam of AM cadre, Govind Singh, Mrs. Anjana Sinha, Ravi Gupta and Anjani Kumar of AP cadre, Rajwinder Singh Bhatti, Shobha Ohatker and Neeraj Sinha of BH cadre, R C Patel, B S Maravi and Rajesh Kumar Mishra of Chhattisgarh cadre, M D Antani of Gujarat cadre Shyam Bhagat Negi of HP cadre, Ranbir Singh Sharma and Shatrujeet Singh Kapoor of Haryana cadre, Anil Palta of Jharkhand cadre, B Srinivasan of J&K cadre, Shaik Darvesh Saheb and Harinath Mishra of Kerala cadre, Gopal B Hosur, Mohd Wazir Ahmed, S Parashiva Murthy, Bhaskar Rao and Kamal Pant of Karnataka cadre, Kulwant Kumar, A M Kulkarni, Jaijeet Singh, V V Lakshminarayan, Bipin Kumar Singh, Sadanand Vasant Date and Sanjay Kumar Verma of Maharashtra cadre, Arun Pratap Singh, K Vaiphei, V K Maheswari, Sajjad Wasi Naqvi, Mrs. Anuradha Shankar, Ashok Awasthi, Saiyed Mohd Afzal, B B Sharma and Vijay Katariya of Madhya Pradesh cadre, S S Chaturvedi of MT cadre, Arun Kumar Sarangi, Y B Khurania and Sudhansu Sarangi Orissa cadre, Srinivas Rao Janga, Ravi Prakash Meharda and Rajeev Kumar Sharma of Rajasthan cadre, Amrendra Kumar Singh of Sikkim cadre, T P Sundaramurthy, T V Ravichandran, Abhash Kumar and Shankar Jiwal of Tamil Nadu cadre, V Vinay Kumar and Mrs. Anju Gupta of Uttarakhand cadre, Mrs. Tanuja Srivastava, Rajiv Ranjan Verma, Subhash Chandra, Satya Narain Sabat, Mrs. Tilotma Verma, Prashant Kumar, Sanjay Moreshwar Tarde, Avinash Chandra, Bijaya Kumar Maurya, Daljit Singh Chaudhary, Manmohan Kumar Bashal, Sandeep Salunke and Mrs. Renuka Mishra of Uttar Pradesh cadre , Daniel Tshering Lepcha, Rajesh Kumar, Debasish Roy and Ranveer Kumar of West Bengal cadre.
(We said this on Dec 14)

J.P.Dange likely to be shifted from CS's post in Maharashtra
As the grapevine has it the Maharashtra government is planning to shift J.P.Dange from the post of Chief Secretary. He is an IAS officer of the 1973 batch who belongs to the Maharashtra cadre.

Jeyaraman to return to West Bengal
K. Jeyaraman, working as Superintendent of Police, CBI, at Chennai, is returning to his parent cadre West Bengal after the completion of his tenure. He is an IPS officer of 1997 Batch.

Abhishek goes to Mumbai
Ramesh Abhishek, Joint Secretary, Justice in the Government of India, has moved to Mumbai as Member Forward Markets Commission. He is 1982 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre.
( We said this on September 24 )

Power brokers debarred from entering key ministries
As the grapevine has it, 23 power brokers have been debarred from entering key inistries in the Government of India (GOI).

Government yet to consider who will succeed U.K. Sinha?
As the grapevine has it, the authorities in the Government of India (GOI) are yet to apply their mind regarding new Chairman of the UTI Asset Management.

Shukla tipped to Special DG, CRPF
As the grapevine has it, R.K. Shukla who is working Addl. DG (SSB) is tipped to Special DG CRPF. He is an IPS officer of 1976 batch who belongs to the Manipur-Tripura (M-T) cadre.

Sharma had also resigned
This not the first time that 2007 batch M-T cadre IPS officer Rajeev Pachar has resigned and re-appeared for exams. It happened earlier also when G.N. Sharma, IAS (AM:82) reappeared, qualified and allotted Rajasthan Cadre. Now he is with Government of Rajasthan.

Will there be three year tenure of DRM ?
There is a proposal to have three years tenure of DRM in Indian Railways.

Rastogi to join Settlement Commission in Chennai ?
Chief Commissioner Income-Tax in Ahmedabad is likely to join Settlement Commission in Chennai. He is 1975 batch IRS officer.

Jalota likely to be Additional Commissioner, MCGM
As the grapevine has it, Rajiv Jalota - Commissioner Employment and Self-Employment with the Maharashtra government, is poised to be appointed as Additional Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). He is an IAS officer of the 1988 batch who belongs to the Maharashtra cadre.

Dr Bhargava appointed Director HRD
After completion of National Defence Course, 1987 batch IFS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre Dr Alka Bhargava has been appointed Director in the HRD Ministry. Her tenure will be till June 2012.

IRS officer is Director Textiles
Yogesh Kumar Verma is new Director Textiles in the Government of India. He is 1991 batch IRS(IT) officer.

Hanaman poised to be new DGP, Meghalaya
As the grapevine has it, P.J.P. Hanaman (1979 batch IPS officer) has brightest chance of making it to the post of DGP, Meghalaya. He is brother of Charles Pyngrope, Speaker of the Assembly, and a half-Khasi. He is considered to be dark horse and the most favoured in the tribal land. He will be appointed after MHA returns the list that is currently with in Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of India (GOI).

Mattoo is VC Jammu University
Amitabh Mattoo has been appointed as the first Vice Chancellor of the Central University at Jammu. Sudhir Kumar Sopory will be new Vice Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Ajay Kumar is new JS IT in GoI
Ajay Kumar has been appointed new Joint Secretary in the Department of Information Technology in the Government of India. He is 1985 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre.

Railways transfers and postings
A. Narsingha Rao, Group`B` officer of Civil Engg., has been transferred from SER to ECOR on his own request, Pallavi Joshi of SS/IRAS has been transferred from NCR to NR and posted against an existing vacancy, Rajeev Rajvanshi of SAG/IRSE has been transferred from ECOR to be posted as CTE on the Rly. Itself, Rajesh Kumar Verma of SG/IRSS has been transferred from RCF to SECR, Ms. Mattoo of SAG/IRAS has been, on return from deputation, transferred to NR in the cadre, JK Jain of SAG/IRSME has been, on return from deputation, transferred to RCF, Rae Bareli in the cadre, Shashi Kant Singh of SG/IRTS has been transferred from ER to SER in the same capacity and posted in the cadre, SK Mohanty of SAG/IRTS, working as CFTM/ ECOR, has been transferred and posted in the cadre on ECOR, BK Joshi of SAG/IRTS, presently working as CTPM/ECOR has been transferred and posted as CFTM on ECOR itself, TS Khawas of SAG/IRSE, working as CBE/SECR, has been transferred and posted in the cadre on SECR itself, SB Ninawe of SAG/IRSE has been transferred from SECR to be posted as CBE on SECR itself

Transfer of several Rly officials cancelled
Transfers of Gopal Singh of JS/IRSEE from ER to CR, CL Meena of SAG/IRSE from NWR to ER, RK Sharma of JS/IRSEE from NER to BK Gupta of SAG/IRSE from WCR to SER, Jitendra Tripathi of JS/IRSEE from NER to CR and Nand Kishore of SAG/IRSE from CR to ECOR have been cancelled.

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
Katoch appointed Director, STC
Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Commerce has appointed Rajan S. Katoch, Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser, as Director on the Board of State Trading Corporation of India (STC) with immediate effect.

Akila resigns as Company Secy. Thinksoft Global
Ms. S. Akila, Company Secretary and Compliance Officer of Thinksoft Global Services Ltd has resigned with effect from the closing hours of December 20, 2010.

Rajkumar appointed as Company Secy. Thinksoft Global
V. Rajkumar has been appointed as Company Secretary and Compliance Officer of
Thinksoft Global Services Ltd with effect from December 20, 2010.

Chatterjee ceases to be Director BoB
Ranjit Kumar Chatterjee, Director of Bank of Baroda (BoB) has ceased to be Director on the Board of the Bank w.e.f. December 20, 2010 consequent upon expiry of his term on December 19, 2010.

Mansingka resigns as Director, Shree Salasar Investments
Ms Sarita Mansingka, Director of Shree Salasar Investments Ltd has resigned from the Company w.e.f. December 16, 2010.

Pitalwalla is Business Head (3G), UTV Interative
UTV Interactive, has appointed Sameer Pitalwalla as Business Head (3G).

Roy appointed Director, Tantia Constructions
Tantia Constructions Ltd has appointed U. S. Roy, former Managing Director and CEO of SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and Deputy Managing Director of State Bank of India (SBI) as an Independent Director of the Company.

Ravichandran is ED of TVS Logistics
S. Ravichandran has been appointed by TVS Logistics as Executive Director.

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 OR JOURNALISTS ?

In my view journalists.

Deepak

Beauracrats

R P Meena

I feel that each component of Indian governmental machinery is responsible for the present state of corruption and condition of India. I feel each citizen of India who bears this brunt is equally responsible. In democracy like India we badly need a mass movement.

Harish Kumar

FORUM

It is too risky to be honest. (the stakes are too high!)

A debate is underway on this site - Who are more corrupt. Politicians, Bureaucrats or Journalists? I am briefly narrating a predictable true life story of a crusading bureaucrat who fell to the guiles of a corrupt system. To be honest is the most risky business, avoid such dangerous pursuits. You should be honest at your own peril because the disincentives of honesty are grueling. Now take the recent example of a dynamic lady officer who, with youthful energy & reformers zeal, joined as Head of the Department in the Directorate of Printing, & started literally cleaning up the corrupt system. The recruitment scam, purchase scam etc all was being cleaned up. She left no one. This was her undoing. Nothing wrong in selective favoritism, if it results in self preservation. Within 6-7 months, the officers in the Ministry of Urban Development cried foul & were gunning for her. First they tried to build false corruption cases, she approached the Secretary but he pleasantly smiled & gave her an assurance. Nothing happened. She decided to fight it out on her own as she was a tough nut & gave them a fitting doze. Then they tried to implicate her with a case in SC Commission & pressurized her to give in. This is a dangerous but easy way of getting rid of inconvenient officers, draconian laws are also resulting in reverse discrimination & implication of honest, upright officers & sending them to jail, but still she persisted undaunted, so fed up of her resolute obduracy they leveled a record 27 charges (but kept these charges a top secret!) & repatriated her. The staff in the Press had never seen such a crusading zeal & their grievances, problems were being resolved at a fast pace. But what did the officer gain. She was prematurely repatriated, got falsely accused, stigma on her career, an adverse ACR & hence ruined her future prospects. Tell me who will want to fight corruption? It is wiser to sit & enjoy the perks & privileges, maintain status quo, oblige & manipulate the system, please one & all, get out of turn promotions, retire honourably & boast & brag your imaginary feats. So read the writing on the wall & sponge the system. Corruption is lucrative, alluring & brings respect & rewards.

Jai Bharat.

Dimpy Chopra

Cry beloved Country cry

The government should immediately withdraw the concessions being doled out to government employees posted in Jammu & Kashmir. It is doing more harm than good. Due to generous incentives like double HRA, Daily allowances etc the strong lobby of vested interests does not want normalcy to return to the State. As a result they fuel & add to the passions of ant-India tirade. Incase the government feels that it will not get enough volunteers to be posted in J&K if it withdraws these concessions then let it make at least one posting in hard stations like J&K & North East a compulsory service requirement uniformly applicable to all & ensure that Officers do not remain perpetually on tour to Delhi or on various trainings or avail long leave during their posting in J&K. The administration in J&K is suffering & the service delivery of these government departments is extremely poor & corruption is rampant & there is no accountability as these officials think they are doing a great favour on the nation by merely being posted there with no work. Except for the Defence Forces all the others are enjoying a free holiday. The government has created a very bad precedent by allowing such generous concessions which are difficult to withdraw. The common man in the streets is helpless & in despair & suffers silently. Governance is poor, corruption rampant & they have an administration being manned by people who act & behave like absentee landlords.

Ritu Sharma

Organised Group-A Services deceived

As you are aware, Organised Group-A Services have not been provided parity with IAS. These services have only been promised Non-Functional Upgradation at par with two years junior IAS Officer. However, in practice even this concession is being denied by the DOPT on one ground or the other! The only hope for these services rests with the PM, some reasonable executives and support from and through your websites. Therefore, I am attaching a copy of the letter addressed to the PM by the Indian Statistical Service Association, Eastern Chapter, Kolkata. I hope, as usual you will publish it for the sake of justice.

A.K. Verma

Secretary, ISSA (EC), Kolkata

Rahul Gandhi and RSS

Indian Media seems to suffer from short memory. Congress party supported by few intellectuals and Rahul Gandhi had run a campaign against communal forces in 1999 elections. Communalism Combat NGO was financed by Congress party to release adverts in the newspapers nation wide and they made similar comparison between BJP, RSS and LET. Interestingly most people (except few honest individuals) associated, with this campaign have been rewarded. One person is UPSC member, two persons were nominated to Rajya Sabha, one activist was conferred with Padam Shree and the head of the group is close aide of Mrs Gandhi. Media please do your homework. Wiki leaks is nothing new. Rahul had this agenda even in 1999.

Rajesh K

Service Associations as Whistle- blowers ?

Based on Court's verdict, the former Chief Secretary of UP was nailed jailed and finally out on bail. UP IAS Officers' Association desrves kudos for revealing details of UP Cadre officers including the present case, based on their secret ballot. Unfortunately, that Association seems to have gone into oblivion, ostensibly under fear of Mayavati. One hopes that the Associations of all other organized Services at the Centre and States take a cue from this experiment and turn into Whistle-blowers to expose the corrupt officers in their fraternity. The general perception is that a silent majority of government employees are honest. The mantle falls on them to expose the rest. The peers and subordinates must keep a tab on the misdeeds of their subordinates, peers and superiors. It is felt that exposing corrupt practices perpetrated by the political and the bureaucratic Executives should become a mandatory part of legitimate duties of government employees through enabling provision in the Statutory rules like: the Conduct Rules and Prevention of Corruption Act through appropriate legislations. This would strengthen the anti-corruption forces in the country. Remaining inactive as mute witnesses tantamount to complicity with the offenders. Let DOP&T take pro-active action through appropriate legislations to make the existing Statutory rules more inclusive Let it not wait for the second batch of Radia tapes which will have a tsunami effects on several serving and former bureaucrats, if the whispers in the corridors of power are to be believed. Let us learn a lesson from the pearls of wisdom of I K Gujral former Prime Minister of India, in his message to WIC browsers.

A K Saxena (A retired civil servant)

1996 IAS rule the roost

Since when has been the posts of PS to Ministers become powerful? It is sad to see officers of more than years seniority becoming PSs to junior ministers and considering themselves powerful e.g Puneet Kansal was doing excellent work for NRHM. He was groomed for that work, when there were more experienced officers (Amarjit Sinha JS, Tarun Seem Director and Archana Verma Dir). All 3 of them completed their term this year and it was hoped Puneet will be the link. What has Indian bureaucracy come to? For the flagship Health program of India, there is no continuity and all the persons (Jt Secretaries and Directors) are new due to such follies.

Samar Singh