HEARD IN PRIME MINISTERS OFFICE:

What time do babus come to office in morning?

Sir few minutes before 11 am.

What time do they leave?

Depends it can 3.30 pm 4.30 pm?

Why ?

Sir, WIC is updated at 11 am and then again between 3.30 amd 4.30 pm and every bureaucrat is in office before 11 am to check the site and remains atleast till it is updated again.

Payal Singh

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

Aaj Ki Aawaz

They say rather than taking action on ITAT revelation!!!!

And showing that Justice still prevails in this Nation!!!

There is a secret investigation being done!!!!

That how has 'propriety' won????

Knowing this order's ramifications ordinarily 'higher' permission would have been sought!

Or simply by those involved the decision would have been bought!!!

So in this order propriety ke hooee hai jeeth!!!

And Congress and Q karr rahe hai seethe!!

Now Pranab Da is trying to find out why was ITAT honest in its order?????

For Congress on 'blasphemy' this order doth border!!!!

Now there are revelations on the proximity of Rajiv and Sonia with Mrs. and Mr. Q,

That is why outside Q's home and Office wheelers and dealers used to queue!!

It was well known Q can get things done!!!

Via him apart from Bofors many other orders were won!!!

Lets us see what the Court Orders on CBI's application for closure of the case!!!!

Hope the Judge gets a bout of propriety and throws CBI's plea out... its rightful place!

They say for 8 hours by CBI Kalmadi was questioned and he gave CBI the 'run around'!

Of course CBI did not use its usual tactics where the interrogated to a chair are bound!!

In Kalmadi's case CBI was even careful about its manners..... please and thanks!!!!!

Did not pull of its usual scary pranks!!

Kalmadi came out with a smile on his face!!!!

Did not look like that for 8 hours questioning by CBI he did face!!!

By the way the conduits to execute his orders are behind bars!!!!

And Kalmadi the main protagonist is roaming about in his swanky cars!!

Seems order has reached CBI..... Kalmadi should not be arrested!!!!

And as we know Madam's order as long as Congress is in power cannot be contested!

Sarkaar refuses to act on allegations about ex CJI's near and dear's assets rocketing!!

Alleged during his stint as CJI a lot of 'ghoos his near and dear were pocketing'!!!

In the first place their known income and asset acquisitions do not match!!!

And the acquisitions are grossly undervalued is other catch!!!

Confucius says.....Jiss Desh mein corruption ka hai boll baala!!!

Jiss Desh mein hai Imaandari ka hothaa hai roz mooh kaala!!!

Adds..... Aise Desh ke hai humm waasi!!!!

Yahaa 'achaayi' ko roz dee jathi hai phaasi!!!

Request: I'm taking leave for a week!!!!

HIS Blessings I'm going to seek!

God Willing I'll be back in a week's time to pen Awaaz!!!

Please my dear readers for my absence do not be with me naraaz

Bharat Kumar

A BOLT FROM THE BLUE -

Journalists joining bandwagon of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats

In 1922, the noted freedom fighter C. Rajgopalachari wrote in his prison diary that "elections and corruption, injustice and the power and tyranny of wealth and inefficiency of administration will make hell of life as soon as freedom is given to us. Men will look regretfully back to the old regime of comparative justice, as well as efficient, and more or less honest administration. The only thing gained from independence will be that as a race, we will be saved from dishonor and subordination".

It seems that the fears of Rajgopalachari have became true in India's present day socio-economic and political environment given the fact that daily news media presents the height of corrupt practices of our politicians and bureaucrats.

That majority politicians and several bureaucrats, in India, are neck deep in corruption has been known to us for decades but the journalists - considered to be watchdogs of society - also joining the bandwagon is something that has come as a bolt from the blue. More alarming is the extent to which the journos have been found to be (mis)using their connections.

Now the question arises that who is more corrupt ? The politician, the bureaucrat or the journalist ? To find out an answer to this question whispersinthecorridors initiated a debate and found that though Politicians and Bureaucrats were part and parcel the corrupt system for long, journalists are comparatively the new entrants and this is as shocking as the news about tainted judiciary.

Detailed report in the January issue of Whispers in the Corridors magazine.

BUREAUCRACY

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation to be split
The Government of India (GOI) is actively working for having two separate Ministries out of one - Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Thus, there will be separate Ministries i.e. one each of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Candidates short listed for POWERGRID's CMD
Candidates have been short listed for the post of new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Powergrid. They are: R.N. Nayak Director - Operations & I.S. Jha Director -Projects (both from POWERGRID), R.S.Mina Director Personnel of NHPC, Rajeev Sharma Director- Projects of Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Sanjay Kumar Mittal Director & CEO Hydro Lanco Infratech.

Tripathi is new Ambassador to Somalia
Sibabrata Tripathi, presently High Commissioner of India to Kenya, has been concurrently accredited as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Somalia with residence in Nairobi.

Ray is new High Commissioner to Uganda
S.N. Ray, Joint Secretary at MEA headquarters, has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to Uganda in succession to Niraj Srivastava.

K.B.L. Mittal posted as GM, NE
K.B.L. Mittal has been posted as General Manager (GM) of the North Eastern (NE) Railways.
(We said this on November 5, 2010)

Ms. Vijaya Kanth posted as GM, NF
Ms. Vijaya Kanth has been posted as General Manager (GM) construction of the North Frontier (NF) Railways.
(We said this on November 5, 2010)

R. C. Agrawal to be GM, NW
R. C. Agrawal has been appointed as General Manager (GM) of the North Western (NW) Railways .
(We said this on November 5, 2010)

Vinay Mittal to be GM, SE
Vinay Mittal has been appointed as General Manager (GM) of the South Eastern (SE) Railways.
(We said this on November 5, 2010)

Ramchandran posted as DG, RDSO
Ramchandran has been posted as Director General (DG) of the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO).

Bhaduri to be Director (Finance) HSWCL

M Bhaduri is being tipped to be new Director (Finance) of the Hindustan Steel Works Construction ltd (HSWCL).He is presently with the SAIL.

Tingal in NDMC transferred
Rajneesh Tingal, Director (Personnel), NDMC has been transferred as Director (Commercial), NDMC. He is a CSS Cadre officer.

In Petroleum Ministry voice of 2 industrialists is heard
In the Petroleum Ministry, voice of only two industrial majors is heard. They are Mukesh Ambani chief of the Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Anil Agrawal head of the Vedanta group.

Dinesh Sharma is CEO, PSFT is also head of Tea Board
Dinesh Sharma who is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Price Stabilisation Fund Trust (PSFT) in Commerce Ministry has been given additional charge of Chairman Tea Boa. He is Kerala cadre IAS officer of the 1983 batch.

Vivek Srivastava to be promoted
Vivek Srivastava, Deputy Director in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) Headquarter, Delhi, is likely to be promoted as Joint Director, IB. He is Gujarat cadre IPS officer of 1989 batch.

Post of Counsellor, Community Affairs (development) at Abu Dhabi vacant
The post of Counsellor, Community Affairs (development) under the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs at Abu Dhabi is proposed to be filled up. Officers of the rank of Deputy Secretary / Director of the Government of India or equivalent level are eligible for the post.

Modified procedure for JS level empanelment further amended
The modified/ revised guidelines / procedure for Joint Secretary level empanelment have been further amended by the Government.

3 IPS officers in fray for Jt.Secretary Naxalites management
As many as three IPS officers are in contention for the post of Joint Secretary, Naxal Management who had faced Home Minister P.Chidambaram for Interview on January 6, 2011.

Ajay Kumar appointed Director in MHA
Ajay Kumar has been appointed as a Director in the central government's Ministry of Home Affairs. He is an IAS officer of the 1989 batch who belongs to the Jharkhand cadre.

V. V. Chaudhary, S.S.P. Goa nominated for U.N. SAT
V. V. Chaudhary, S.S.P. Goa has been nominated for the U.N. SAT for the year 2010-11.He is an IPS officer of the 1998 batch who belongs to the UT Cadre.

CSL has the post of Director (Operations) vacant
The Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), of which CMD is Commodore Kartik Subramaniam, has the vacancy of Director Operations since he has now been elevated as CSL's CMD.

Ms Premalatha posted in MEA
Ms. T.A. Premalatha (lFS 2007) has been posted in MEA as Under Secretary in Americas Division in place of lnbasekar.

IA & AS officer Sridhara transferred
R Sridhara, Deputy Director (Civil/AB), O/o Director General of Audit Central, Mumbai,has been transferred and posted as Deputy Director (Report), in the office of the Principal Director of Commercial Audit & Ex-officio Member Audit Board, Bangalore against an existing vacancy.

Shortfall of SP rank officials in Bihar declining
After change of guard in Bihar in November 2005, on an average, six directly recruited IPS offices have opted for Bihar cadre every year. And now with seven more IPS (probationer) officers opting for Bihar cadre, the shortfall of directly recruited IPS officers in superintendent (SP) rank would come down further.

Shyam Saran nominated to NSAB
Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran has been nominated for two year as Member to the National Security Advisory Board, which was reconstituted by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

Joshi joins RCT in Bhopal
S C Joshi has joined as Member (Techniocal) of the Railwauy Claims Tribunal (RCT) in Bhopal. IRTS officer Joshi has succeeded C R Ganesh.

AMC and ASI sign an MoU for preserving monuments
An MoU was signed between Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for cooperation to preserve ancient monuments and sites and revitalize heritage precincts in Ahmedabad in Delhi on January 6, 2011. The memorandum was signed by Gautamsen Gupta Director General (DG)Archaeological survey of India (ASI) and I.P. Gautam, Commissioner AMC, Ahmedabad. Giving details of the pact I.P. Gautam said the AMC and ASI have decided to have a joint cooperation in the common subject of preservation and revitalization of the heritage monuments and their precincts in Ahmedabad, particularly Bhadra Fort and its precincts. Ahmedabad is the first city in India which has signed such anMoU with the ASI for preserving
ancient monuments and sites, said Gautam who is an IAS officer of the 1986 batch & belongs to the Gujarat cadre. Ahmedabad city,he said, is having 52 national monuments controlled by ASI,said Gautam adding Ahmedabad city is celebrating its 600 years of its foundation and therefore the MoU is one of the landmark and pride for Ahmedabad City and Gujarat. The origin of most of the historical monuments of Ahmedabad, Gujarat can be traced back to the 15th century.

IAS changes in Bihar
Santosh Matthew PS RD has been given the additional charge of principal secretary of public grievance. Vinay Kumar, Vandana Preyashi, Anupam Kumar and Anirudh Prasad were also given additional posts in the state bureaucracy.

Balachandran to be Advisor ISCS (UPDATED)
G Balachandran has been appointed as Advisor, Inter State Council Secretariat (ISCS).He is 1977 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre.He is presently AS &FA Space.

RTI

Inspection of records
The PIO had first given a date and time to inspect the records and then did not facilitate the inspection. The CIC held the PIO responsible for harassing an RTI applicant by first fixing a date and time for inspection and then not facilitating the same. Under section 19(8)(b) of the RTI Act, the CIC awarded a compensation of Rs. 2000/- to the applicant for the loss and humiliation suffered by him.
Comments
Before fixing an appointment, a PIO should ensure availability of records and any other requirements for inspection, lest there be a charge of dereliction of duty. A PIO must honour his commitment and abide by the responsibilities under the RTI Act.

[Mr. Rajendra Gupta v. MCD in Decision No. C/SG/A/2010/003216/10705]

- 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
Gandhi brought in as member of Everonn Education Board
Everonn Education has brought in SKIL Infrastructure Chairman Nikhil Gandhi into its board of directors.

Kuppusami is new MD of OPGC
Venkatachalam Kuppusami has been appointed Managing Director of Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC).

Dey resigns as President , Saatchi & Saatchi
Sanjib Dey, President, Saatchi & Saatchi, has quit the organisation.

Khatavkar has joined Raj TV as Group COO
Vidyadhar Khatavkar has joined Raj TV Network as Group COO . He was earlier appointed as Senior Vice President, Media & Strategy , Cellcast Interactive India.

Balakrishnan resigns as COO, Mail Today
Suresh Balakrishnan, Chief Operating Officer, Mail Today, has resigned from
the publication.

Sharma to be COO Mail Today?
Rakesh Sharma, CEO, Aaj Samaj will be taking charge of Mail Today as COO soon. He would be reporting to Ashish Bagga, CEO, India Today Group.

Datar is GM, LG Ad India
Samir Datar has been appointed as General Manager (Client Servicing), LG Ad India

Mukherjee is Creative Director, LG Ad India
Rajat Mukherjee has been appointed Creative Director, LG Ad India.

Babu is VP, VenSat
VenSat has appointed G V Babu as Vice President ( India Studio Operations).

Dwivedi re-appointed Company Secy. Kamdhenu Ispat
Yogendra Dwivedi has been re-appointed as Company Secretary and Compliance officer of Kamdhenu Ispat Ltd w.e.f. January 1, 2011.

Vaidyanath retires as Director, ITC Ltd
K. Vaidyanath has retired as Wholetime Director of ITC Ltd with effect from January 2, 2011, on completion of his present term.

Vaidyanath appointed Non Exec. Addl. Dir ITC Ltd,
K. Vaidyanath has been appointed with effect from January 03, 2011 as Additional Non-Executive Director by the Board of Directors of ITC Ltd .

Hitachi Home & Life Solutions appoints directors
Vinesh Sadekar and Ramachandran Subra Mani have been appointed as independent directors of Hitachi Home & Life Solutions Ltd.

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)

Insecurity corrupts thought process

The thought process in the human body gets corrupted mainly due to insecurity, whether he/she is a politician, bureaucrat, common man. The insecurity is basically a fear that is unknown and arising out of a systemic failure that is inflicted in our mind.

K K Mishra

Praan Jaye Par Kursi Na Jaye

The views expressed by Rajeev Aggarwal under topic, 'Make top jobs for a minimum fixed term and unextendable' is made in good spirit except that I do not agree to fact that life expectancy & general health is better & physically fit employees need to be retained because of following reason-

(i) In ACR there is column about Health condition of official reported upon & no one consults the Medical record or the Medical Bills or the number of days officials remain on leave due to poor health reasons and routinely record as satisfactory or very good to avoid any counter questioning or representation or due to laziness of making effort. There are numerous cases of officials who are chronic diabetic or heart patient undergoing treatment with considerable expenditure born by government yet in ACR there is never any mention. The Reporting Officer says there is no rule that he has to refer to such records. As a result the government is saddled with liabilities. When staff is asked to work they are citing reason of one illness or another & do not work. The Reporting Officer does not want to spoil relations with these officials & adopts live & let live policy & government is saddled with life long liabilities & shirkers of work.

(ii) The government recently introduced compulsory Medical examination for All India Service Officers so that those who are not found Medically fit can be withheld from being promoted & taking up strenuous job of higher responsibility post. But now that has fizzled out & Medical Examination has become routine & are even being manipulated. In Police Service they are not allowing over weight & pot bellied Officers but what about very fat, sluggish & ill looking IAS officers clinging on to Chair for dear life. Praan jaye par kursi na jaaye !

(iii) When it comes to tenure transfer these very officials claiming huge Medical Bills, availing Medical Leave etc are given preference in choice posting & sympathy of Department & they are not transferred or given extension while others who have never claimed any Medical Bill are shunted around citing their good health as reason. This is double jeopardy. Medically unfit persons get sympathy, not transferred or given choice metro posting, light seat with very little work. What crime have others done that for same salary they have to do double work.

The government should keep a record of all medical bills claimed and medical leave availed and transfer orders stalled on medical grounds & this should be attached with ACR of every official compulsorily. This will reduce the Medical Bills & leave drastically because work shirkers disappear when crises situation in work place but suddenly reappear & are visible everywhere at time of promotion.

Dimpy Chopra

Who will judge the Judges? Who will pull up the Ministries?

Here are a few suggestions to ensure accountability & route out corruption in Ministries-

1. If the file noting contains incomplete or wrong information or suppression of facts then responsibility will have to be fixed right from official who wrote the file note up to each level of officer who initialed file but wrote nothing. All should be hauled up. We cannot allow these manipulators to scrounge & suck the system & become like Pappus when it comes to shouldering responsibility & say that I only initialed file & the person who submitted file note alone is responsible or that subordinates mislead me. This is reason why in very big cases of corruption very high officers do not get caught & they lay all responsibility on clerk who submitted file & say he did not tell us about rule. What is work of these officers if they have to merely initial files, take fat salaries & not apply their mind. If that is so let the clerk run office. Their post can be abolished, leading to considerable savings, office will still be running because no one is indispensable in government.

2. The conspiracy of silence should not be allowed & if an officer at any level failed to point out shortcomings he cannot take plea that he carried out orders of superior. Meekly carrying out orders of superior without examining threadbare all pros & cons & not pointing out deficiencies or problems or violation of rules should not be allowed. Let such person be held accountable & served with a charge sheet as he failed to uphold the interests of the public. Every person employed in the government is there to serve the people of India and only the interests of the country are supreme & must & should be upheld. If a person upholds the vested interest of superior boss or his own narrow interest, he should be treated like traitor who has betrayed trust & interest of people of India.

3. Abolish yearly wasteful exercise of ACR/APAR writing. It is a weapon to reward sycophants & to punish upright officials. Introduce a compulsory examination after every five years, this will ensure that at least government rules will be read & knowledge enhanced at least once in every five years. For every Promotion it should be compulsory to Qualify a departmental competitive examination & interview for all Gazetted posts to be held by UPSC. All those who fail should be compulsorily retired from service after three attempts. After officers enter service they strop reading books on rules & procedures & updating knowledge & leave it to the clerks. Alternatively allow 75% marks for examination & 25% marks for ACR/APAR this will balance the situation.

Let us end the sofa bound inertia & sponging off the system by these persons who enter service by qualifying in one exam by cramming, making multiple attempts & through coaching, full time involve in just one goal of becoming Sarkari Damaads & to pass exam and get rich quick by all kinds of dubious means & not do any selfless public service.

Lok Nath Mehra

Nexus of IAS & CSS

Monopoly and nexus of IAS & CSS can be broken. If IPS & IRS come together, they can break this criminal nexus.

S K Singh

Delayed/denied promotion to Shri Kakkar, retd Sr PPS

With reference to the noting of retd Sr PPS Kakkar that he was denied promotion etc., the same makes very pathetic reading. Needless to say everybody in the Secretariat knows who were responsible for denial of promotion to him. DoPT has also erred in sending him a final reply taking shelter under some struck down (by relevant courts) orders. Some Under Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries who were denied promotion earlier when they were in service, were given promotion after their retirement and their dues etc. were settled even after retirement. So why not adopt the same yardstick in Kakkar's case also? It seems that after finalisation of DPC (where Kakkar's name figured and he was cleared for promotion) the rules of the game were changed to the disadvantage of Kakkar. Why? DoPT owes promotion to Kakkar. All the best to him and hope 2011 would give him reason to smile.

Rajgopalan

ITAT order on Bofors

Let us atleast give credit to this government for appointing such upright officers in the Income Tax Tribunal. I am sure this government will also show the maturity and grace to acknowledge that they have upheld the independence of the tribunal.

Sudha

So sad that one service is getting everything in time and others are not even anywhere near of dreaming it. Imagine IAS of 1977 is going to be Secretary and the IRS is still Commissioner which means three ranks down. It's so astonishing that a service gets three promotions in advance and others just sit like buffoons. No where in the World, there is such an all controlling selfish cadre which thinks of itself only. And pity to those policy makers who allow this extreme injustice. My rank in the Civils was 41 and I missed the IAS by just one rank. As a result I will retire as a Commissioner and they will become Secretaries. My rank is higher than most of the IAS of earlier years. There should be some sense of proportion in drafting policies. Out of all secretaries in the GoI, 95 percent are the IAS. Now it is time for other services to wake up.

Sunil Kumar

Join in large numbers "stop corruption - save India" day on Jan 30

Leading citizens, social activists and NGOs have planned to come together to observe Jan 30, 2011 as "stop corruption - save India" day, as a people's movement against corruption to bring awareness among the public and media.

Silent protest meets are proposed in the national capital, state capitals, district headquarters, blocks and panchayats all over India. The movement shall continue silent protests to draw the attention of the people towards growing corruption, loot and plunder of the tax payer's money.

Kris Dev

Social Activist

Chennai.