Execellent Updates
Heera Lal

Contact-suresh.mehrotra@yahoo.com> &

<mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com>

This is the state of affairs of the Congress Party
Top Congress leader ,Treasurer of the party Moti Lal Vora could not get elected his candidate in the Sanjari-Balod Vidhan Sabha election in Chhattisgarh.Constituency falls in Vora's home district.There was no BJP and now there is no Congress Party in Chhattisgarh.

This is the state of affairs in Orissa
There may be another perception about Orissa in the country but the reality is otherwise.Kidnapping of DM of Malkangiri district R Vineel Krishna shows real picture of the Navin Patnaik Government.

Will Kutty succeed P K Tripathi ?
Dr M M Kutty is likely to succeed P K Tripathi as PS to Delhi Chief Minister. He is 1985 batch IAS officer of UT cadre.

Umesh Kumar to be JS Banking
CSB has cleared the name of Umesh Kumar for the post of Joint Secretary Financial Services. He is 1983 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre.

Das promoted in DEA
Shaktikanta Das, presently Joint Secretary (Budget) Department of Economic Affairs, has been promoted to the rank of Additional Secretary. He is 1980 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.

1981 batch IAS to get ACS rank in West Bengal this year
1981 batch IAS officers in West Bengal are likely to be promoted to the rank of ACS by the end of this year.

20 Ambassadors to be posted
In all 20 Ambassadors are to be posted in near future. Tug-of-war for all the posts to be filled up soon is at its peak.

Cmde Raghunath to be Director in Mazagon Dock Ltd
Cmde P R Raghunath is being tipped to be new Director (Ship Building) in the Mazagon Dock Ltd..

K K Sharma to be relieved for Chandigarh next month
K K Sharma will now be relieved by the Delhi Government only after the budget is presented next month.1981 batch IAS officer of UT cadre has been appointed Advisor to the Administrator Chandigarh.

Anil Palta's promotion on the anvil
Anil Palta is likely to be promoted as a Joint Director in the CBI. He is an IPS officer of the 1990 batch who belongs to the Jharkhand cadre.

IA&AS officer Ms. Namita posted in Northern Railways, New Delhi
Ms. Namita Sekhon (IA&AS-1985), on repatriation to the department, is transferred and posted as Principal Director of Audit, Northern Railway, New Delhi. She will relieve Ms. T Vani Sriram.

S.A. Baba to return to West Bengal in April
S.A. Baba who is currently Consul General of Indian Embassy, Jeddah is expected to return to the West Bengal government in April 2011. He is an IAS officer of the 1988 batch who belongs to West Bengal cadre.

IAS officer dropped from panel in Maharashtra
Former IAS officer and Tata Realty MD Sanjay Ubale has been dropped from the key government panel in Maharashtra. This key panel was formed last month under Maharashtra Chief secretary to deal with issues such as attracting investment, developing infrastructure and eradicating malnutrition in the state.

IPS changes in Assam
Bishnu Prasad Rabha has joined as new SP Darrang district .Prithi Pal Singh will now be SP Tinsukia district.

Three promoted as DDG in Prasar Bharti
Three officers Mssrs Satish Grover, Nilima Harjal and Deepa Chandra have been promoted to the rank of DDG in Prasar Bharti.

Adarsha effect ?
The majority of 298 working IAS officers in Maharashtra have this time, surprisingly enough, already submitted their asset declaration to the general administration department (GAD) as against by September every year. The state has 298 working IAS officers with nearly 40 on deputation in New Delhi. Of the 255 officers serving in the state, more than 225 have submitted the declaration while the papers of the remaining officers are also expected to be filed soon. Is it the effect of Adarsh episode that has changed the attitude of the officers this time.

Choudhary is back to cadre
CVO of the Eastern Coalfileds S K Choudhary is back to the parent IDAS cadre. On return from deputation Choudhary has been posted in Allahabad.

Anil Verma posted as Administrator in West Bengal
Anil Verma, who was recalled from his deputation in London on return has been appointed as administrator of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council in West Bengal.He is 1989 batch IAS officer.

IAS changes in Delhi soon
IAS changes are expected to take place in the Delhi Government in a couple of days.

IAS postings in West Bengal
Rajesh Sinha has been appointed commissioner of MGNREGA. Excise commissioner D K Chakraborty has been given additional charge of district electoral officer of Kolkata North.

All Akashwani Kendra's to be headless from March 1
Believe it or not, after the retirement of Station Director of the Jabalpur Akashwani Ms Solanki, all the 15 Akashwani kendras in Madhya Pradesh are going to be headless.

AP creates ex-cadre post of Spl Commissioner for IAS
The Andhra Pradesh government has created an ex-cadre post of Special Commissioner, Rural Development in the Selection Grade Scale of IAS.


Mrs. Jaya Lakshmi posted Spl Commissioner, Rural Devp, AP
The Andhra Pradesh government has transferred Mrs. G. Jaya Lakshmi, Director of Horticulture, A.P., Hyderabad and posted her as Special Commissioner, Rural Development. She is an IAS officer of the 1995 batch who hails from the AP cadre.

C.B. Bhave bids adieu to SEBI (UPDATED)
Chandrasekhar Bhaskar Bhave (retired IAS officer of 1975 batch from Maharashtra cadre) demitted office of Chairman ,Security Exchange Board of India (SEBI) after serving three years . The circumstances under which the government decided to limit Bhave's term to three years remains unclear. The heads of other financial regulators such as the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and PFRDA
enjoy five years at the helm. Even there was a talk that government had decided to extend his term by 2 more years, but abruptly changed its mind by appointing U K Sinha head of UTI AMC as new SEBI chairman for three years.

U.K. Sinha is new SEBI chief (UPDATED)
U.K. Sinha who till recently was Chairman UTI-AMC has assumed charge as Chairman, Security Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Sinha is an IAS officer of 1976 batch from Bihar cadre who had taken voluntary retirement from service (VRS) while he headed UTI.
( We said this on November 11 )

CSS cadre officers' empanelment today (UPDATED)
Empanelment meeting will be held on February 18, 2011 of CSS cadre officers for the post of the Additional Secretary.

Additional Judges of Himachal Pradesh High Court appointed (UPDATED)
Kuldip Singh and Rajeev Sharma have been appointed Additional Judges of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, in that order of seniority, for a period of two years with effect from April 3, 2011.

Paul Antony is new Chairman of Cochin Port Trust (UPDATED)
Paul Antony has taken over as chairman of Cochin Port Trust . He belongs to the 1983 batch IAS of the Kerala cadre.

Avinash Kapoor quits American Axles and Manufacturing (UPDATED)
Avinash Kapoor, Director operations has quit American Axles and Manufacturing.

Avinash Kapoor joins Helvoet Rubber (UPDATED)
Avinash Kapoor has joined Halvoet Rubber as Director Operations

2002 batch IAS officers elevated to JAG in Tamil Nadu (UPDATED)
The Tamil Nadu government has elevated following Eight IAS officers of 2002 batch to the Junior Administrative Grade (JAG)with effect from 01.01.2011 : Ms.Archana, Patnaik Collector the Nilgiris District-Udhagamandalam, Ms. Sigy Thomas Vaidhyan on leave, C. Samayamoorthy Collector- Tiruppur , Ms. Mythili K Rajendran Deputy Secretary Public department Secretariat -Chennai, M.S.Shanmugam Collector- Thanjavur, Ms. Reeta Harish Thakkar Joint Commissioner
Municipal Administration Chepauk - Chennai, Ms. B. Jothi Nirmala Director Tsunami Project Implementation Unit- Chennai and Ms. Jayashree Muralidharan Deputy Secretary Home Prohibition and Excise department- Chennai.

Three IRS officers posted as OSDs (UPDATED)
Three IRS officers of the rank of DCIT, awaiting postings on return from deputation, have been posted as OSD to CCIT (CCA) in Delhi Region. They are PS Choudhary, Padam Singh and GS Virk.

M S Damle awarded Reid & Taylor "Retail Leadership award" (UPDATED)
M S Damle, ED-Retail of HPCL has been conferred with the Reid & Taylor "Retail Leadership award" at the Asia Retail Congress 2011 held in mumbai.

CORPORATE
India's Corporate sector is sandwiched ?
There is a general perception in the corridors of power that India's corporate world is totally sandwiched between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and former Finance Minister & presently Home Minister P. Chidambaram. There is clear cut division.

Lokhande to be ED BHEL,Nagpur ?
In all probability, C K Lokhande will succeed Aurangabadkar as ED Nagpur unit of the BHEL.

Lilly to be Director (Finance) CPC
D Lilly is being tipped to be new Director (Finance) of the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

Who has retained promotion of AGMs in BHEL ?
Almost eight months have passed since the promotions of Assistant General managers (AGMSs), to the post of General managers (GMs), in Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) are being stuck up. The list of those AGMs, promoted as GMs, is usually declared in June or July month of every year but they are yet to be announced this time. What is the mystery?.

Rao takes over as Chairman of Paradip Port Trust
G.J. Rao has taken over as chairman of Paradip Port Trust. Before this assignment he was the chairman of Tuticorin Port Trust and Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Sethusamudram Corporation Limited.

Wahi appointed Executive Chairman
Rajiv Wahi has been appointed as executive Chairman of the Vestas India.

Apte appointed Citi' representative
Shirish Apte, Citibank's CEO for Asia Pacific, has been appointed on Citi's seven-member advisory board for its India operations as Citi representative. The new advisory board is designed to improve governance at the bank.

Kapoor appointed Chairman, Timex Group India

Timex Group India has appointed Kapil Kapoor as the its new Chairman.

Mathur appointed Company Secy. Kopran Ltd
Kopran Limited has appointed Abhinav Mathur as a Company Secretary and Compliance Officer of the Company with effect from December 27, 2010.

Dhanuka re-appointed MD, IG Petrochemicals Ltd
The Board of IG Petrochemicals Ltd has approved the re-appointment of
Nikunj Dhanuka as Managing Director with effect from April 27, 2011 for a further period of five years ,

Jhanwar re-appointed Whole-time Director, Trishakti Electronics & Industries

Trishakti Electronics & Industries Ltd has re-appointed. Ramesh Jhanwar as the Whole-time Director of the Company for a period of
three years .

Kumar appointed Addl. Director, UltraTech Cement
UltraTech Cement Ltd has appointed Prof. Nirmalya Kumar as an Additional Director (Independent) on the Board with effect from
February 16, 2011..

Mehta appointed Director (Operations) , Kanpur Plastipack
Kanpur Plastipack Ltd appointed Sunil Mehta has been appointed as Director (Operations) w.e.f. February 8, 2011.

Lahoti Overseas Ltd Chairperson resigns
Ms Rukmini Rambilas Lahoti, Chairperson has resigned from the Board of the Company due to their pre-occupation with other personal matters.

Krishna appointed GM (Finance), Bhagiradha Chemicals
Bhagiradha Chemicals & Industries Ltd has appointed K. Gopala Krishna as General Manager (Finance) with effect from March 1, 2011.

Prasad promoted as MD, Seshachal Technologies
Durga Prasad has been promoted as Managing Director of Seshachal Technologies Ltd.

CSIA ranked second best airport
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) has been ranked 2nd best airport in the world in the specific list of 15 to 25 million passengers per annum in the best airport by size category by The Airport Council International in Montreal, Canada.

FORUM

Contribution of Rahul Gandhi to India ?

DEBATE (1)I would accept the logic of this debate if someone can give at least one example of contribution of Rahul Gandhi to India. For past seven years his party is in power and is setting new standards of corruption and poor governance and Rahul has not done beyond issuing empty statements. I recollect his adorable father whose pet words were 'hum dekhenge' hum dekhrahein hai' and while country is being looted. Why is it that now we have started even belittling our great freedom fighters by drawing comparisons to such people who are nothing but hypocrites of first rate???????

MB


Mahatma's ideals buried long back

DEBATE (2)Mahatma Gandhi appears to have been reduced to nothing by the hunger of politics. All ideals for which he was Mahatma have been buried long back. What ever is left as Gandhi to day is minus Satya, Ahinsa, Sadachar and any body of flesh can replace him. So Mr. Clean is well deserving to take his place today.

Upendra Sah

Rahul can't be even Rajeev

DEBATE (3)What to say of Mahatma Gandhi, Rahul can not become even Rajeev Gandhi.

D D Devshali


United Strategy required in Emergency Situation

R Vineel Krishna, a Civil engineer from IIT Madras, Chennai, is an IAS Officer of 2005 Batch & had joined as Collector & D.M of Malkangiri District on 01.01.2010. Prior to that he had worked as Sub Collector, Champua for about 04 months & Sub Collector Baliguda for 01 year 08 months & as Principle Director, DRDA, Ganjam for about 04 months in Junior Time Scale and on his promotion to Senior Time Scale was posted as District Magistrate in this Naxalite affected District. The young Officer had barely 05-06 years of service & was only in STS, I think the government should have posted more senior & experienced Officers to tackle the situation. Problem is the senior officers like to be comfortably posted in Headquarters & don't want to face rough & tough situations, especially Maoists, Naxalites etc. I am surprised the senior IAS Officers in Bhubaneswar have not swung into action. This is an emergency situation & needs delicate handling with lightening speed. His colleagues in the Indian Police Service in Orissa are requested to save him from this unfortunate situation.

Lok Nath Mehra

Keep your own house in order

I read with great interest the lament of a retired Postal Accounts Official against the Department of Posts. Why the officer was waiting for his retirement to express his views ? The Postal Accounts Officers Association has never expressed its dissatisfaction. Anyway coming to the core issue of so called grievance that since the Chief Postmaster General is in HAG therefore the Financial Advisers must be one step below is a ridiculous argument. In all the Central Ministries in the Government of India the Secretaries have Joint Secretary level Officers as Financial Advisers. Does this mean that all the posts of JS&FA should be upgraded to Additional Secretary level posts in all Ministries. If the system can run smoothly in the main Ministries then what is the problem in field units of the Department of Posts. Infact it is only due to far sightedness & vision of the Indian Postal Service Officers that we have a regular IFA system in all the offices & it is the only Department which has all procurements examined & scrutinized by the Finance Officers. Please take the example of Director General CPWD who does not have a separate IFA. Similarly none of the Chief Engineers are having separate IFAs. The DG National Archives, Bureau of Indian Standards, Archaeological Survey of India & numerous other Heads of Departments of attached & subordinate Offices do not have designated Financial Advisers within their Offices. The level & grade of the officer does not matter because the JSFA system is working smoothly in all Central Government Ministries. In fact it goes to the credit of the Department of Posts that it has upheld the highest traditions of transparency. I think this is a ploy by the Accounts Line Officers to grab more posts. Already the IP&T Accounts & Finance Service is getting accelerated promotions. While in IAS 1991 Batch IAS have become Joint Secretaries, the IP&TAFS Accounts line Officers of 1992 Batch have become General Managers/ DDGs/Joint Secretaries and even IPoS of 1989 Batch have not got any promotion to SAG. The Offices of DAPs are in a mess because the Accounts Services Officers do not want to exert & update the pendency & introduce computerization. The most difficult task of splitting the DAP staff of M.P, U.P & Bihar & relocating to Offices in the three new Circle Headquarters at Raipur, Ranchi & Dehradun could not take place because the Accounts line Officers do not want to take a strong stand. The remarks are irresponsible & unfortunate. Had there been an iota of truth the officer would have given his name because after retirement there is nothing to fear.

Panneerselvan

Avoid Chamchagiri

"Snatch the silver spoon from these privileged CSS & IAS Babus"

What is so indecent about the title that the delicate sensibilities of somebody are so much disturbed? It is easier to find fault with individuals & bring them down but I suggest we may concentrate on highlighting the shortcomings in this unfair & unjust system & spread awareness as this will lead to positive change. The easiest thing to do is sing praises of IAS & CSS Babus, get into their good books & get your job done. Many are doing this, it is the safest option, there are few who have guts to highlight shortcomings in system & to force people to think about the over all demoralizing affect of favouring a handful of people & alienating the majority services which are at receiving end & facing the brunt.

Brajesh Kumar Yadav


What a silly argument by the PM?

As evident from his Press conference, the PM seems to have lost his confidence. How can he escape responsibility of the wrong doings of a Minister under him by saying it is coalition dharma? Can a Thanedaar say that a bank robbery committed also include his family members hence no action can be taken against them for fear of family getting separated? What a silly argument by the PM? Guts is what is needed to lead and rule. Is it necessary to compromise on moralities, rules and the laws of the country in the name of coalition dharma just to hang on in the Government? If you can't enforce law because you are a minority, resign and seek fresh mandate. People will understand. But this type of hypocrisy, people will not.

Ajay

Engineers are servants

In the time of corruption by civil servants, army, leaders, journalist and others, engineers are the only government entity which are least tainted. Ironically, they are the best talent in country. All the good students at the level of 12th are selected for engineering in different institutes including IITs. It is not required to mention that IITians are most talented amongst all in India. Then the meritorious engineers appear in Engineering Services Exams and very few are selected are sent to different departments like Railways, MES, CPWD, CEA and many other departments. Only Railways is having good promotional avenues and rest other are in shambles. Out of them MES is worst affected because it is illegally headed by army. The promotion scene there is worse than a state government department. Officers after service of 23 years are languishing at Deputy Secretary level whereas IAS or other civil servants are expecting their Additional Secretary level promotion in next two years. This is the level of respect given by GoI to most talented IITians whereas the looter civil servants are not only making black money but also getting fastest possible promotion. GoI dances on the music of civil servants and army. The weakness cannot be anything but corrruption. How can one think of progress in such country. If India wants to prosper, then all the sensitive appointments should be given to these high IQ engineers and there is no doubt that they will do wonders. But the question remains that does our country require eradication of corruption and have a uniform and unbiased system. The answer is known to all. I conclude that engineers are orphan and advise new generation to become civil servants so that they get recognition, promotion and perk as black money. O God save the country from corrupts.

Bala

Is the Coalition Compulsion a licence to loot poor people ?

In connection with the whisper "Kee fark painda hai", I would like to raise the following questions:-
(a) If the choice as to who is to be appointed to the cabinet was solely to be that of the leader of Coalition Partner Party (as the PM has said) irrespective of the credentials and the past of the concerned individual, then would the PM have appointed Dawood Ibrahim to cabinet if the Party Leader of Coalition Partner desired so?
(b)Is the Coalition Compulsion a licence to loot the poor people of country to appease the Coalition Partner to somehow remain in power? PM's Coalition Dharma can be summed up as : "Rob Peter (the Poor Indians) to pay Paul (Coalition Partners)". (c)What was the compulsion under which Congress Ministers and Chief Ministers were allowed to indulge in the blatant corruption as there was no Coalition Compulsion in such cases?
(d) Do the Coalition Partners concede that they forced the PM to tolerate corruption and loot carried out by the Ministers from their respective parties?

Sammalochak

DoPT should issue policy guidelines on downgraded ACRs


Natural justice demands that the officers who had been graded below the Benchmark without assigning any reason should be protected. The Supreme Court in Dev Dutt's case held that overall grading should be communicated but within a "reasonable time". Accordingly, the DoPT vide OM dated 14.5.2009 issued instructions to the Ministries/ Departments to communicate the overall grading of the APAR after it is reviewed by the Reviewing officer and accepted by the competent Authority. Thus the communication is to be done within six months.
The DoPT order is effective from 2009-10 onwards. But what about the cases which are old by 10-15 years. Sometimes, ACRs of 2003-04 or so are written in 2009, what will be the fate even if they are communicated and no action to upgrade or modify the ACRs for the period under report is taken by the Reviewing Authority/ Competent Authority. In such cases there is no meaning of communication after such a long time. It will not serve the basic aim of communication. The basic objective of communication of adverse and downgraded ACRs is give opportunity to the officer to represent and most important to provide opportunity to improve the performance in future. That is the reason Supreme Court ordered for promotion ignoring the downgraded ACRs in the cases of Abhijit Ghosh Dastidar, R.K. Anand, J.S. Garg and Ranjana Kale .
In view of the above quoted judgments, DoPT should issue clear and urgent guidelines for the DPC to consider the promotion of such officers ignoring downgraded ACRs so that the career of the affected person is not spoiled without any reason. Immediate necessary action be taken urgently in the matter.

N K Luthra

Are we spineless country?

Here is Pakistan much small than India, which takes billions of dollars from US and has daring to arrest US diplomat who murdered its citizen. On the other hand, we not only release Rahat Fatah Ali Khan caught with foreign exchange but also not able to do anything with Srilanka who has detained 104 fishermen. Are we really becoming superpower which we boast about. When it comes to international relations we are always defensive for no reason.

Shantanu Ghosh

RTI

Minutes of DPC in sealed cover

The Commission directed to provide (i) the marks awarded by the DPC to the Appellant under all heads, if necessary by opening the sealed over in which the evaluation sheet for this particular DPC has been kept;
and the (ii) photocopy of the action taken report including the file noting concerning the disposal of his representation dated 19 January 2010 addressed to the UPSC.

Comments

Sealed cover proceedings no longer enjoy absolute immunity from disclosure. The procedure of 'sealed cover' needs to be re-visited to evolve a new mechanism to deal with the current realities.

[Shri B L Sinha v. UPSC in File No.CIC/WB/A/2010/000569 & 868SM]

- 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)