Simply superb. Everyone in the Government & Corporate sector access WHISPERS. Doing a fantastic job. I wish your viewership will cross all records.

H Bharali

Aaj Ki Aawaz

Bharat Kumar
aaj_ki_aawaz@yahoo.com

Contact-suresh.mehrotra@yahoo.com> &

<mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com>

Youngsters want Railway Ministry for Congress
As the grapevine has it, youngsters led by AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi are pressing that the Railway Ministry should be given to an incumbent from the Congress. The reason being advanced for this is that Uttar Pradesh assembly polls are due to be held in the year 2012.

Tamil Nadu's CM, Ms. M.Jayalalitha being discussed
On Tuesday Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister, Ms. Jaylalitha was a hot topic of discussion in corridors of power due to a lot of allegations and complaints that she made against a Union Minister and due to a lot of other issues.

BUREAUCRACY

Will Gairola be new Secretary IT ?
Post of Secretary Information Technology has been lying vacant in the Government of India for the last several months. Minister Kapil Sibal has made it clear that this time he would not like to have any IAS as Secretary and his choice will be a technocrat. It is believed that the Minister is keen for the appointment of Dr B K Gairola ,DG NIC as the Secretary IT.

Ajit Lal is new Chairman of JIC
Special Director in the IB Ajit Lal will succeed H Upadhyay as Chief of the Joint Intelligence Committee on July 1. He is 1974 batch IPS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre.
( We said this on May 23 )

Veena Ish to be Joint Secretary HRD
Veena Ish is being tipped to be new Joint Secretary Higher Education in the Department of HRD in the Government of India. Veena Ish is 1985 batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre.

Chandrasekhar appointed Vice Chairman State Planning Board Kerala
Outgoing Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar has been appointed as Vice-Chairman of the Kerala State Planning Board. 1970 batch former IAS officer Chandrasekhar will be accorded Cabinet rank. Eminent Economist Dr PrabhatPatnaik was the Vice Chairman during the LDF regime.
( We said this on June 14 )

Panel of Secretary Home reaches to HM
A panel consisting of 6 officers of 1974 and 1975 batch IAS officers for the post of Secretary Home has reached to the Home Minister P Chidambaram.

Why did Subodh Agrawal meet Chidambaram ?
Why did Punjab Secretary Chief Subodh Chandra Agrawal meet Union Home Minister P Chidambaram ?.Is the meeting of 1975 batch IAS officer Agrawal was in connection with the post of Secretary Home.

Jha to be Director (Technical) MECL
R N Jha is being tipped to be new Director (Technical) of the Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL).

Utter chaos in the Railway Ministry
A situation of utter chaos prevails in the Railway Ministry. It is being attributed to uncertainty regarding Chairman Railway Board (CRB).

Bhagavantha Rao to be MD,State Bank of Hyderabad
Bhagavantha Rao Deputy Managing Director in the State Bank of India (SBI) who is in charge of Madhya Pradesh Circle is shortly going to be appointed as Managing Director (MD) of the State Bank of Hyderabad.

Sunil Kumar to return Chhattisgarh
Additional Secretary Higher Education in the Department of HRD in the Government of India Sunil Kumar is handing over charge on June 27. Central deputation tenure of 1979 batch IAS officer of Chhattisgarh cadre Sunil Kumar is coming to an end this month .

Nandkeolyar posted as Director General of Audit Central Receipt
S. Nandkeolyar, Director General of Audit, Central, Mumbai, has been transferred and posted as Director General of Audit Central Receipt, New Delhi.

Khullar appointed Mission Director NFSM
Mukesh Khullar has been appointed as Mission Director, National Food Security Management (NFSM) .He is 1985 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre.

Majhi to be JS Agriculture
Edwin Kulbhushan Majhi has been appointed as Joint Secretary, in the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation. He is 1989 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre.

Pradeep Yadav resumes his duty
Pradeep Yadav, Director UT Ministry of Home Affairs who had been to attend the mid - career training which is now over. So he has re joined his duty . He is an IAS officer of 1992 batch who belongs to the TN cadre.

10 IPS officers allocated Bihar cadre
As many as 10 IPS officers who had qualified for the all India Police service during 2009 civil services examination have been allocated Bihar cadre. They are Ms Meenu Kumari, Deepak Barnwal, Himanshu Shanker Trivedi, Mithilesh Mishra, Rajeev Mishra, Rahul Kumar, Chandan Kumar Kushwah, Hari Prasath S, Ms Dhurat Saayli Savlaram, Sudheer Kumar Porika.

Rajendra Upadhyay is Prasar Bharti Correpondent in Kabul
Rajendra Upadhyay will succeed Santosh Sharma in September in Kabul as new Correspondent of the Prasar Bharti. He is 2003 batch Indian Information Service officer.

G Venkatesh appointed as Director, Heavy Industries
G Venkatesh has been appointed as a Director, Ministry of Heavy Industries in government of India (GOI). He is an Cost Account service officer.

West Bengal Govt recalls Barun Roy
The West Bengal government being headed by Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee has recalled services of Barun Roy, an IAS officer who is on central deputation.

Who will succeed Mohta in London ?
Who will succeed Monika Mohta in the Nehru Centre in London? A couple of names have already started doing the round for the post. Mohta has been appointed Indian Ambassador to Poland.

Sudhakar Johri posted as ADGP, Internal Security and Civil Defence, Rajasthan
Sudhakar Johri, ADGP - Rajasthan Police Training Centre, Jodhpur, has been transferred and posted as ADGP, Internal Security and Civil Defence, Rajasthan, Jaipur.

One Director level vacancy in Heavy Industry Department
One position of Director Leval is vacant in Ministry of Heavy Industry government of India . The file will be approved within a week.

Upadhyay model to fight AIDS being studied by developing nations
Door-to-door distribution of condoms got the explicit backing of the UN in its fight against AIDS. UN endorsed the views for distribution of condoms despite fierce opposition from some conservative countries at the AIDS Summit recently. India's Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told the summit about the country's pledge to distribute male and female condoms in the country with the help of health activists. The best example of distribution of condoms to fight the dreaded disease was shown by Vishwa Mohan Upadhyay, an IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh cadre, who made a record by distributing about 50 lakh condoms in Sidhi district, while he was posted there as the Collector, a decade back. Upadhyay adopted a comprehensive strategy for prevention of new HIV infection with added support for family welfare activities to make the pogramme effective, efficient and sustainable. His model of intervention for fight against AIDS is being studied by various developing nations.

After eight years Bihar govt asked to provide security to IPS officer
The Union home ministry is reported to have directed the Bihar government to provide adequate security to IPS officer Amitabh Kumar Das. Das, who is at present posted as commandant of the Bihar Military Police, at Jamalpur in Munger district, had apprehended threat to his life from the railway mafia. A letter written by Das, when he was posted as the railway police superintendent here, to then deputy inspector-general (rail) Subodh Kumar Singh, copies of which were also sent to the state police headquarters and the chairman of the railway board, said some contractors with criminal antecedents had virtually grabbed the railway contracts on three important routes. The central security agencies had earlier reported to the ministry about a threat perception to the 1994 batch IPS officer, who was credited with exposing the nexus between some politicians of the state with railway contractors during his stint as superintendent of railway police (Patna) between August 2001 and May 2003. The letter, written by deputy secretary N.I. Chowdhury, says: "The matter (related to security arrangements) has been examined in the ministry in consultation with the central security agencies. His (Das's) security should be beefed up accordingly."

IPS postings in TamilNadu
R. Thirunavukarasu has been appointed Commandant, Tamil Nadu Special Police VII Battalion, Pochampalli, vice J. Bhaskaran, IPS, transferred and posted as Superintendent of Police Railways, Chennai.

IAS shake-up in Andhra Pradesh
A K Paridahas been appointed as principal secretary, rain shadow areas development department.Vinod Kumar Agarwal will now be special commissioner (appeals) in the office of the chief commissioner of land administration. Ranjeev Acharya has been appointed as principal secretary, finance.C R Biswal has been posted as principal secretary, industries (food processing). J C Sharma will be chairman of Godavari Valley Authority. Vasudha Mishra has been appointed special commissioner, commercial taxes. J S V Prasad was named as the new commissioner of intermediate education while Neelam Sahani was made the MD of AP industrial development corporation.

IPS changes in West Bengal
Banshidhar Sharma has been appointed MD of the Police Housing Corporation.Harirajan will now be IG Jails.Amar Sarkar will be new ADG Railways.

IAS postings in Punjab
Sanjay Kumar will hold additional charge of Firozpur and Faridkot Divisions.Raminder Singh has been made Director Local Self Government.S K Sharma will be Special Secretary.

IAS reshuffle in West Bengal
Nurul Haq has been appointed Principal Secretary Minority Welfare Department.Khalil Ahmad will now be Director Small Scale Industries.A K Agrawal will be Secretary HRD.Ritesh Mohan has been made Secretary Agriculture.D P Banerjee has been posted as Director ESI Department.Nandan Roy has been made Registrar General Marriages Department.Uma Pad Chatterjee will now be Secretary School Education.

Basu to be Director (Technical) CMPDIL (UPDATED)
B N Basu is being tipped to be Director (Technical) of the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited (CMPDIL).

SAIL signs MoU with MIDHANI for Defence sector products (UPDATED)
Maharatna, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI), a Government of India enterprise, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for exploring synergetic business opportunities in production of value-added products, enhanced research & development activities, exchange of technical know-how and joint investment between the two companies. The MoU envisages setting up of a joint task force team (TFT) to identify special steel products which can be jointly developed by utilising the R&D facilities of both companies based on assessment of market demand and subject to techno-economic viability and commercial prudence. The TFT will also devise a plan for optimum utilisation of facilities at SAIL and MIDHANI for production of quality and high-grade special steel products. Identification of areas for joint investment and collaboration for production of special steel is also included in the scope of MoU.

DEBATE

Next Lok Sabha-Congress and BJP to get less than 100 seats ?
If today's political scenario is taken into account, both the Congress and the BJP will get less than 100 seats in the next Lok Sabha elections. In such a case, what could be the emerging scenario? Mail your valuable views to us at -

mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com or suresh.mehrotra@yahoo.com

CORPORATE

Rani George is Diector, Tourism, Govt of Kerala
Mrs. Rani George has been posted as Director, Tourism, Government of Kerala. She replaces M. Shivshankar, IAS. Mrs George is an IAS officer of the 2001 batch who belongs to the Kerala cadre.

Garg resigns as Alternate Director, Asian Hotels (East) Ltd
Navneet Garg, Alternate Director, Asian Hotels (East) Ltd has resigned from the Board of Directors of the Company.

Kodali resigns as Non Exec. Director, Priyadarshini Spinning Mills Ltd
Rajaveeraiah Kodali, Non-Executive Director has resigned from the Board of Directors of Priyadarshini Spinning Mills Ltd

HOV Services may re-appoint Whole-time directors
HOV Services Ltd is seeking Central Government's permission to re-appoint Pavinder S Chadha, Sunil Rajadhyaksha, and Surinder Rametra as Whole Time Directors for a further period of 5 years w.e.f. April 1, 2011.

Lekhwani appointed Company Secy. Parekh Aluminex Ltd
Parekh Aluminex Ltd has appointed Jitendra Lekhwani as Company Secretary w.e.f. February 11, 2011.

Garg appointed Addl. Director, Bihar Sponge Iron Ltd
Bihar Sponge Iron Ltd has appointed B. D. Garg as Additional Director of the Company w.e.f. June 4, 2011.

Chordia appointed Addl. Director, Gokul Refoils & Solvent Ltd
Gokul Refoils & Solvent Ltd has appointed Gyan Chordia, as Additional Director of the company w.e.f. June 15, 2011.

Parikh resigns as Company Secy. Birla Shloka Edutech Ltd
Ms. Jigna Parikh has resigned as Company Secretary of Birla Shloka Edutech Ltd w,e,f Jun 15, 2011.

Mukhopadhyay resigns as CFO, Yash Papers Ltd
Parthasarthi Mukhopadhyay, Chief Financial Officer of Yash Papers Ltd has resigned from the Company w.e.f. June 15, 2011.

Arora appointed Addl. Director, Times Guaranty Ltd
Arun Arora has been appointed as Additional Director of Times Guaranty Ltd with effect from May 16, 2011.

Rao resigns as Director, Times Guaranty Ltd
P.M. Rao has resigned as Director of Times Guaranty Ltd. with effect from May 16, 2011.

Ranade appointed Company Secy. Times Guaranty Ltd
Ms. Swapna Apurva Ranade has been appointed as Company Secretary of Times Guaranty Ltd with effect from June 1, 2011 Aviva plc has announced that John McFarlane will become a non-executive director from September 1 this year.

FORUM

Next Lok Sabha-Congress and BJP to get less than 100 seats ?

This going to be an election against corrupt people and parties. The third front parties like JD(U) and some regional set ups will make the government and would be working for people. It is JD(U).

Kunwar Ram Sumiran

An expert in not taking decisions

I entirely agree that many Joint Secretaries do not take any initiatives and some of them do not even take any decisions. A classic example of this was a joint Secretary in the Ministry of Urban Development who was an expert in not taking decisions. He will either send the file back with some irrelevant query or keep the issue pending on one pretext or the other.

Pulipra

Problem of India's working women

This is to draw the attention of the readers of this website to the problem of India's working women. India has been rated the 4th most difficult place for women to be born in. This is the most shameful state of affair. After 60 years of Independence, the patriarchal society of India has not managed to create a space for its womenfolk. Thus women who step out of their homes to work do so in the face of grave danger and adversities. Every working woman has to perform double the duties that their men folk do. They are perforce wives, daughters and primary care-givers. When they step into the work-force, they give away the best 08-10 hours of their day to the earning of the bread and butter. When they get home there is not a minute of rest they have because their primary role has to be performed. in this context if the Government of India wants to encourage more women to join the work-force it has to give it certain benefits. The Child Care Leave is one such benefit. Under no circumstance should this benefit be changed or revised. Tjis is an appeal to Smt. Sonia Gandhi to understand the travails of being a working woman and allow no tinkering by the DoPT.

Shubha Mazumdar

Civil Society is legally defined

Many ministers are aggressively demanding to know who is the Civil Society. Had they cared to study the law of defamation, libel, slander, scandal, vilification and rumour mongering, they would never have demanded to know any further. Fortunately, these laws were framed and implemented by the British who never question if Gandhi(Only Mahatma Gandhi) represented the nation or civil society. By the rhetoric deployed by these ministers, Gandhi did not represent the population of whole of India but Jinna did, as ultimately the British stand was vindicated and so India was ripped into two from the middle! The law of defamation stands on the tested premise that a statement of the arraigned lowers the reputation of the petitioner in the "estimation of the right thinking people of the society". Now, are ministers the only right thinking people of the society? They have demonstrated such blatant ill-will and animosity against the civil society that they attract the charge of violation of their oath of office, which vouched that the person shall discharge his/her official functions without fear or favour, love or ill- will. But they are behaving like dictators without as much caring to exercise reasonable restrictions on their expressions, using words most unbecoming of a minister, since they enjoy the powers of the Executive(which includes the power to reward & punish or remit). The civil society enjoys no such powers. Why , then, should the ministers use harsh words, threaten members of the civil society? Their claim that the parliament is the only forum for ideas of public good is terribly flawed. The parliament is only supreme, not sovereign. So even the elected members are supreme in that sense, but it is "we, the people of India", who are sovereign. If the civil society is giving some feedback to the parliament or the Executive, it should be thankfully acknowledged and acted upon to the extent possible.Is it beyond the power, mandate or lawful duty of the government to remove corruption or bring back the black money stacked abroad? No, no, no. It is within the powers of the government to yield results even before the Lokpal Bill is passed. The question is: Does the government want to do so?

M L Gupta

Strange happenings

Strange things are happening in the country. There seems to be a competition in attacking whom you do not like with macabre, indecent and untrue words. See how Anna Hazare is being targetted. 'He is a mask of RSS. He is a dictator and he represents nobody'. One spokesperson of the ruling party has dubbed the entire attempt of the civil society in drafting a strong Lokpal bill as the tyranny of the 'unelected and the nonelectable' He forgets that that these are the people who have elected them into power and they continue to have the right to vote them out. Does he mean that once elected the so-called representatives of the people can do anything and should not be questioned by those who elected them. I think in the face of this attitude we should amend the constitution to provide for the right to recall a member of parliament if he or she fails to deliver or indulges in corruption. We also know how every person is not elected through a foolproof fair polls(notwithstanding our Election Commission's commendable efforts for that).money and muscle power has been used by some occupying the hallowed hall of Lok Sabha while Rajya Sabha memberships are up for favour and sale. Only the other day the chief minister of Tamil Nadu raked up once again the suspicion about the election of one of the important functionary of Government who incidentally is a part of the drafting committee of Lokpal bill representing Government. It is nothing but arrogance that makes these men and women harp on their elected status vis-a -vis the nonelected members of civil society who are really fighting people's battles.

Aarti Khosla

Recognition of Civil Society!

It seems that 90% people in India do not know what is civil society and who made them to become violent on any issue without having put forth the issue within and before the elected members of the Parliament, before coming into public with open opposition in biased attitude. May it be Anna, or anyone else, what right they have to blame the government without discussing and going into the modalities and pros and cons of the "so called - Kaladhan". No doubt that people have not understood about the Kaladhan lying out of the country and belonging to various politicians, bureaucrats, business personalities etc. etc. but still Civil Society should, first clarify the public at large that what is the via media to bring back that kaladhan as National Property. Even Media has also not put such a question before Anna and others, who claims as above public and above parliament to raise such issue which is not yet clarified by them to the public by distributing public statement as to how that Dhan is immediately possible as they feel and even Baba Ramdev went on fast on this issue with the pretext that government must bring back that dhan within a month or immediately. There must be some bilateral agreements between country to country. Regarding BJP, they speak on this issue with just little voice as if they have put forward Baba Ramdev or Anna as they "Bali ka Bakra. Why should BJP and other Political parties do not make logical statement on such issue and avoid violence and Dharnas in the country. Educative attitude by such parties will better for the people to understand clearly about Kaladhan which is not just fixed with other countries with the approval of the present government or past governments. Where was BJP when it was on rule in the Country and before coming to power they Agenda was very clear about many things including status of J&K. But even they did not found fair on making their promises to the countrymen.

I must appeal Anna and Baba Ramdev and others who raise their voice that the issue may be discussed in the Special Session of Parliament exclusively on for two weeks on Kaladhan and Anna and Ramdev must be special invitee to give their clear and fundamentsl statements in the parliament for taking up the debate. In case that all parliamentarians feel that the issue is raised with logic and names of the specific people whose Kaladhan is lying in Swiss, Mauritius or other countries be published and submitted before Speaker in Lok Sabha and Chairman in Rajya Sabha . Total transparency by the Anna and Ramdev with other backing political parties must bring the names whatsoever, whosoever to make the public realise that Anna, Baba and other parties are logical in bringing the issue before public.

H S Bhalla

People supported them !

Let people media or journalists say anything, both Anna Hazare and Ramdev baba took up mass movement against corruption. Public whole heartedly accepted their struggle and are supporting it. The result will be all incumbent governments will be thrown out immaterial of which party in power.

NVK Prabhakar

Lot of outstanding issues

This is regarding the latest instructions of DoPT regarding stepping up of pay to the officials in the entire CSSS with the Stenographers Grade 'D' promoted after 1/1/2006. There are lot of outstanding issues regarding the entitlement of stepping up e.g. whether the Personal Assistants (Ad-hoc)is entitled for stepping up, whether the officials who were awarded ACP/MACP are eligible for claiming stepping up and whether the officials who were P.A. (Ad-hoc) with ACP are also eligible for stepping up and the last one the how to get the information for determining the junior officials against whom in the entire CSSS cadre can be mentioned for stepping up the senior officials etc. There is an urgent need to clarify all these points without which the latest instructions of DP&T will be of no use.

V P Sharma

Pay Commission's mandate

Pay Commission has mandated difference of max. 2 years in promotion to various grades in central ministries. In railway ministry itself, there is difference of 3 years as IRSS-87,IRSSE-86,87,IRSEE-87 have not been promoted while in case of IRAS and IRTS, complete 89 batch officers have been promoted. This has happened due to step motherly treatment by higher ups in railway ministry. Very less ex-cadre posts like SDGM, ADRM, Computerisation have been given to these departments. There is lot of discontentment in officers of 87, 88 and 89 batch officers of these services.

Surinder

Are Ministers covered under definition of 'public servants'?

The appellant desired copies of instruction under which Ministers are covered under the definition of public servant and the rule under which the Ministers could remain missing from their official duty for weeks and devote themselves for their party works leaving behind their official work unattended. He also wanted to know whether such prolonged absence from official work could be treated as a part of their official duty and whether a Minister could draw pay & perks for the period of absence from official duty to attend personal or party work. The PIO stated that as per records available there are no
specific definitions of whether Ministers are public servant or not. The CIC felt it necessary for the Government to define whether Ministers are public servant or not and this should be available as a requirement of Section-4 declaration.

Comments

The section 4 puts certain obligations on the public authority to pro-actively disclose certain facts about themselves. The civil servants have been at the receiving end for delay or absenteeism but the performance of ministers has not been questioned. Would the RTI
Act be able to force the attendance of the Ministers?

Mr. H.P. Sharma v. Cabinet Secretariat in CIC/SM/A/2011/000263/SG/12650

- 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)