I have been watching d web since 7 months & its quite intersting. For the labour your staff are taking to track the informations is praise-worthy. KUDOS to you and your team.

AGK Murthy

Aaj Ki Aawaz

Mrs. Badal expired and I literally fell off the chair hearing right from Amrinder to Ambika Soni praising her!! If memory serves me right some time back these very people had damned her!!! This is a unique trait in our Netas..... tomorrow if God forbid Bhardwaj or Yeddy pops it the other will praise him sky high!! But then people whose friendships are fickle their animosities are fickle too!!! Another uniqueness in Neta domain....... when they are carried to their resting place their 'chamchas' shout 'jabh takk suraj chandh rahega so and so (dead Neta's name) tehra naam rahega!!! And on the first anniversary if the departed Leader's kith and kin are in power people throng to his Samadhi, if he's been given one, or the function to mark his death anniversary!! And if his kith and kin are not in power then his Samadhi is forlorn and so is the anniversary function, that too if it is held!!!

Political bonds and animosities are fickle or change very fast!!!

They say shallow people's friendships and animosities do not last!!

On Rajiv's death anniversary newspapers had pages of ads praising Rajiv!!! Cost us a fortune!!! Was it needed????? I do not think people who benefitted from the good a Leader does need ads to remember him and those that have borne the brunt for his wrong he's done can be swayed by such ads!!!

Grief and gratitude cannot be induced!!

By inducements grief or gratitude cannot be increased or reduced!!!

Just look at the cut off percentages of reputed Colleges!!! Then there is very stiff competition to get into Medical Colleges, IITs and IIMs!!! There's a rat race for jobs!!!! And our Netas kids just parachute to become Ministers!!! Sorry but I have to give Rahul's example!!! With his Resume he'll not even get a mid level job!!!! But, thanks to his Gandhi parachute, today he has PM taking notes when he speaks and Ministers doing back flips to please him!!! Believe me if he were to take an IQ test he'd get near 100!!! But then some would say with an average IQ Dubiya was the President of the World's most powerful Nation for two terms!! .

But then in a Democracy people's mandate has to be respected!!!

By the Indian Voter education and experience of candidates are never inspected!!

Whenever there is an election all tough decisions are put on hold!!! How many times we've seen Government hike the fuel price after an election is over????? Our votes are precious for them.... we are inconsequential!!! Unless and until 'recall' is not an option available to us Netas will continue to make promises during elections and then dupe us after getting out votes!!!

Election manifestos are printed in disappearing ink!!!

After votes are cast the ink disappears in an eye ka blink!!!

Bharat Kumar
aaj_ki_aawaz@yahoo.com

Contact-suresh.mehrotra@yahoo.com> &

<mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com>

BUREAUCRACY

Will 1978,1979 and 1980 batch IAS get in-situ promotion ?
Government of India is reportedly considering that for all future batches of IAS officers empanelled for secretary, will be given in situ promotion on the day of empanelment as there are not enough posts to accomodate the large batches of 1978, 1979, 1980.

Ajit Seth will have fixed two year tenure
Cabinet Secretary designate Ajit Seth will have a fixed two year tenure beginning June 14.He is 1974 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.Seth will serve as an Officer on Special Duty in the Cabinet Secretariat till June 13 and assume charge the next day.

Will Vijai Sharma be Chairman of CCI?
Name of former Secretary, Forests and Environment Vijai Sharma also figures in the
panel prepared for the post of Chairman Competition Commission of India (CCI). He is a retired 1974 batch IAS officer of UP cadre.

4 CGMs to be DMDs in the SBI
As many as four out of nine Chief General Managers (CGMs) figure in the final panel for elevation as Deputy Managing Directors (DMDs) in the State Bank of India (SBI). Their interviews were held on May 25, 2011. They are: Mrs.Soundara Kumar CGM Bangalore, P. Nand Kumaran CGM Gujarat Circle, P. Pradeep Kumar Managing Director (MD) of the State Bank of Travancore(SBT) and Bhagwant Rao CGM Madhya Pradesh Circle.

Joint Secretary makes a complaint against Secretary ?
This may look strange but in reality a Joint Secretary in the Shashtri Bhawan has made a written complaint to the Cabinet Secretary against his own Secretary.This is considered as a daring act on the part of the Joint Secretary.

22 IAS officers retiring in May 2011
As many as 22 IAS officers are retiring in May 2011. They are Lallungmuana (AGMUT), Arindam Som (ASSAM MEGHALAYA), Lallan Singh, Ramesh lal and Anjani kumar Verma (BIHAR), P K Gadhavi, C M Balat and I A Vohra (GUJARAT), Rajeev Sharma (HARYANA), Abdul Hamid and Tashi Dorjee JAMMU & KASHMIR), Bevis A Coutinho (KARNATAKA), K. Shashidhara (KERALA), Rakesh Bansal, Sewa Ram and Vijay Anand kureel (MADHYA PRADESH), Uttam P. Khobragade (MAHARASHTRA), Achum Nguilie (NAGALAND), Kashinath Sahu (ORISSA), Harjit Singh (PUNJAB), Vishal Nath Rai (UTTAR PRADESH) and Kalyani Sarkar (WEST BENGAL).

Will Parvez Dewan be CEO of Prasar Bharti ?
Name of Parvez Dewan has started doing the round for the post of CEO Prasar Bharti.He is 1977 batch IAS officer of J & K cadre.

Appointments of Secretary Disinvestment and Revenue next month
Appointment of new Secretary Disinvestment and Secretary Revenue will only be made
next month.

Viswanath is now JS Food and Public Distribution
C. Viswanath presently Joint Secretary, Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) has been appointed Joint Secretary Food and Public Distribution.He is 1981 batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre.

Mohanty is CVO NALCO
P K Mohanty has been appointed as Chief Vigilance Officer in the National Aluminium Company Limited(NALCO),Bhubaneswar .He is 1985 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.

C.B.S. Rathore elevated as IG, CRPF
C.B.S. Rathore who so far was DIG CRPF Directorate New Delhi on promotion has joined as Inspector General, Rajasthan Sector CRPF. He is a CRPF Cadre Officer of 1978 batch.

CSB defers selection of Advisor to ED World Bank
The CSB has deferred the selection of Advisor to the ED World Bank for the next eeting.

DPC for CCIT on May 30 ?
DPC for remaining 15,1978 batch IRS officers and 1979 batch IRS officers is expected to meet on Monday.

Amit Kumar to be AIGF MoEF
Amit Kumar has been selected to the post of AIGF in the MoEF.He is 1996 batch IFS officer of Gujarat cadre.

Who ran when blast took place near Delhi, HC?
In corridors of power there is hot discussion that at the time of blast outside Delhi High Court (HC) on May 25, 2011who ran from the spot? Whether it were judges or lawyers or public?

Postal service officer SP Rajalingam is PMG, Berhampur
Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) officer of the Indian Postal service SP Rajalingam (1981) has been posted as PMG, Berhampur, Orissa Circle.

Pakistan : Bungling in allotment of govt accommodation
Federal government employees in Pakistan are seething with anger due to serious bungling noticed in allotment of residential accommodation by the Estate office and successive housing ministers. While 18000 employees are on the waiting list houses meant for them are allotted by deliberate misinterpretation of the rules to individuals who are not even government servants. At the centre of controversy is rule (29A) inserted in the Accommodation allotment Rules (AAR) in 2004 giving the housing minister the power to allot government accommodation out of turn to someone who is not on the waiting list. A former housing minister Rehmetullah Kakar smartly misinterpreted the rule and made some 800 out of turn allotments most of which were to individuals who were not even government servants. Fearing backlash from the employees the PMO has now stepped in to check the malpractice.

Number of UP cadre IAS goes up
Number of Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officers has risen from 537 to 592.Central deputation quota has also gone from from 116 to 128.

Retired officials to lose 'say' in West Bengal
West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to bring an end to the importance of retired officials. She has already asked officials to formulate a data bank about all government staff, specially about the number of retired officials who are still working
in the secretariat and other agencies and districts. Over 100 superannuated officers - retained by the Left Front government - are s aid to be serving in different government departments at Writers' Buildings.

Vivek Bharadwaj to join GoI ?
Vivek Bharadwaj is likely to go on eputation to the Government of India. He is 1990 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre.

Gautam Sanyal to be Principal Secretary to Mamta Banerjee ?
The West Bengal Government has asked for the deputation of CSS officer Gautam Sanyal. Most trusted officer of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee Sanyal is likely to be appointed her Principal Secretary.He was OSD to the then Railway Minister.

Santanu Basu to be OSD to Mamta Banerjee ?
PS to the then Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee Santanu Banerjee is returning to the parent West Bengal cadre.2000 batch IAS officer Basu is likely to join the West Bengal CM as her OSD.

Tapas Chowdhury is PS to West Bengal CM
Tapas Chowdhury is new Private Secretary to the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee.West Bengal Civil Service officer Tapas is presently Secretary Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

Khalil Ahmed to join CMs Secretariat
Khalil Ahmed is all set to join West Bengal CMs Secretariat. He is 1995 batch IAS officer.

Santanu Basu, Somnath Dey join CMs Secretariat
Two West Bengal Civil Service Officers Shantanu Bose, Somnath Dey have joined the West Bengal CMs Secretariat.

Ratan Mukherjee to go on deputation
CSS officer Ratan Mukherjee is going on deputation to the West Bengal Government. He will join CMs Secretariat.

Roy to be PS Home in West Bengal ?
Dr M N Roy is likely to be new Principal Secretary Home in West Bengal. He is 1980 batch IAS officer.

PS to former CM put on compulsory wait
Principal Secretary to former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhdeb Bhattacharya, Subesh Das has been put on "compulsory waiting for further posting". He is 1982 batch IAS officer.

Barun Roy to join CMs Secretariat in West Bengal
Barun Roy presently private secretary to the Union minister of state for shipping is expected to join West Bengal CMs Secretariat.

Murlidhar to return West Bengal
IG in the BSF C V Murlidhar is likely to be recalled from central deputation by the West Bengal Government.He is 1984 batch IPS officer of West Bengal cadre.

Ranade to return West Bengal ?
Ajay Mukund Ranade is likely to be recalled by the West Bengal Government from central deputation. He is 1995 batch IPS officer.

Two SPs removed in West Bengal
The new Government has removed SPs of Howrah and West Midnapore HK Kusumakar and Manoj Verma. Praveen Tripathi and BL Meena are likely to be the next SPs of West Midnapore and Howrah, respectively.

Gupta is new SP Ujjain in MP
Rakesh Gupta has been appointed new SP of Ujjain in MP. He is 1999 batch IPS officer.Ujjain SP Satish Saxena has been moved as AIG in PHQ.

D K Mehrotra is acting Chairman of LIC (UPDATED)
D K Mehrotra has been appointed acting Chairman of the LIC. Additional Secretary Rakesh Singh was holding the additional charge.

CBDT Chairman is retiring (UPDATED)
CBDT Chairman Sudhir Chandra is superannuating on May31.He is not getting further extension.

Dr. Singsit is new Chairman of Manipur Public Service Commission (UPDATED)
Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Government of Manipur, Dr. S. Singsit has been appointed as new Chairman of the Manipur Public Service Commission. He is 1977 batch IFS Officer..

15 members of the Central Board of Film Certification appointed (UPDATED)
As many as 15 members of the Central Board of Film Certification have been appointed for a period of three years. They are Ms. Amal Allana, Ms. Anees Jung, Dipesh Mehta, Pankaj Sharma, M.K. Raina, Rajeev Masand, Nikhil Alva, Ms. Shubhra Gupta, Shaji Karun, Ms. Mamang Dai, Anjum Rajabali, Mrs. Arundhati Nag, Ms. Ira Bhasker, Pankaj Vohra and Harnath Chakraborty.

Three new Judges of M P High Court (UPDATED)
Three new Judges have been appointed in the Madhya Pradesh High Court.They are Mssrs K K Trivedi,Sheel Nagu and Sujay Pal.
( We said this on May 9 )

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

Jamestin is new Director (HR) ONGC
K S Jamestin has taken over as new Director (HR) of the ONGC.

( We said this on February 23 )

Lilly to be Director (Finance) of CPCL
Ms D. Lilly, Executive Director-Pricing & Taxation of Indian Oil Corporation will succeed N C Sridharan next month as Director-Finance of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation.
( We said this on February 17 )

Sarkar appointed Nominee Direcor, Welspun Corp Ltd
The Export Import Bank of India has appointed Mukul Sarkar as its Nominee Director in place of N Shankar on the Board of Welspun Corp Ltd.

Sardana resigns as Director, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd
Anil Kumar Sardana has resigned as Director of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd .

Raghunathan re-appointed Exec. Vice Chairman, TTK Heathcare
TTK Healthcare Limited has on May 24, 2011 re-appointed T.T. Raghunathan, Executive Vice Chairman for a further period of five years with effect from November 1, 2011

Vaidyanathan re-appointed ED, TTK Healthcare
TTK Healthcare Limited has on May 24, 2011 re-appointed K. Vaidyanathan, Executive Director for a further period of two years with effect from July 1, 2011.

Swaroop to be COO, Lokmat Media
Lokmat Media has promoted Jwalant Swaroop to be the Chief Operating Officer (COO) (Publishing) of the company effective June 1, 2011.

Menon joins SACCA as Ex-Officio Member
Non-resident Indian Cheril Krishna Menon has been nominated to the Union Government's Security Advisory Council to Civil Aviation (SACCA) as an ex-officio member.

Nalwaya nominated Part-time Non-Official Director, Vijaya Bank
The Union Government after consultation with Reserve Bank of India has nominated Prakash Chandra Nalwaya, as Part-time Non- official Director of Vijaya Bank w.e.f. May 20, 2011 for a period of three years.

Desai resigns as Company Secy. Bharat Forge Ltd
Beejal Desai, Company Secretary, Bharat Forge Ltd has resigned and ceased to be Company Secretary of the Company with effect from May 26, 2011.

Bharat Forge Ltd re-appoints EDs on its Board
Bharat Forge Limited has on May 24, 2011 has re-appointed B.P. Kalyani, S.E. Tandale and P.K. Maheshwari as Executive Directors of the Company with effect from May 23, 2011.

Unsworth resigns as CEO Tata Global Beverages Ltd?

Tata Global Beverages Chief Executive Officer Peter Unsworth has resigned from the company.

FORUM

Stop this bogey of retirement age. Ninety percent of those who write in your columns are not doing any work in the office except to watch whispersinthecolumns during office time. They are equally not good at operation of computers. It is high time that the retirement age is reduced to 58 years and young men and women are appointed as majority of them possess excellent knowledge of computers. In fact, the NIC should fix fire-walls in Computers and ensure that Babus work sincerely atleast for 6 hours. I am shocked that Mehrotra is advocating the cause of these incalcitrant babus;may be he is getting all vital secrets and inside information from this section of people.If UPA commits this blunder, they will be thrown out of power like the DMK in Tamilnadu lock stock and barrel.

Radhikai

The Govt should frame a policy which should encourage an officer to seek retirement at the age of 58 years.

S K Srivastava

While the authorities in USA took immediate action against IMF chief following allegation of sexual assault, diplomaitc immunity was claimed to save Raymond Davis accused of killing two pakistanis. While sexual assault is no doubt a serious offence ,killing also cannot be trivialised and equated as some kind of compoundable offence like traffic violation.
Sudhir chopra

Sudhir Chopra

I agree with the comments on the Kerala elections and its negative impact on majority. Not merely the scenic line of Kerala's coastline being dotted with massive Mosques some resembling the venerable Taj and also gigantic cathedrals, the education institutions, the land acquisition mafia, the Govt contracts all will have a uni-direction. I fear to be a majority in kerala I wish I were a part of the minority in the state !!

BSS

Congratulations to Mr. Ajit Seth the next Cabinet Secretary.I hope he starts his innings with some introspection on the current dissatisfactoin among the Group A services vis-a vis IAS.The morale of other services is quite down because of the discriminatory policies regarding promotion ,training, transfer etc.Being head of the civil Service Cabinet Secretary is supossed to treat all these rvices on equal footing which is necessary for raising the morale of the civil servants-a requirement which is a sine qua non of efficient administration.I wish Mr. Seth well and hope from him the best in his tenure.

Aarti Khosla

"Congrats, Ajit Seth as the new Cabinet Secretary"
A well deserved elevation of one of the finest civil servants. He is
apolitical, disarmingly simple and firm! Best of luck to him.
A K SAXENA (A retired civil servant)

Celebrating "vindication" enough?
Headley, his diary or statements are being overplayed on several TV channels as "vindication" of the Indian stand on the Mumbai attacks!! What a cowardly response to an act of deadly aggression on India by Pakistan? Scientifically speaking, doesn't every action elicit an equally opposite reaction? Here we are celebrating vindication! But for the Americans, we would not have got even the wind of Headley or the operatives. But for the American governance & justice administration, this canary would never have sung. Where would he have been lodged had he been arrested in India? We have not been able to punish even Kasab. Rather he is being treated to a variety of kabaabs and the Maharashtra govt is being advised to pick up the bill running into a few crores( just 11 crores+). When will India devise a quick response strategy to meet the Pakistani aggressions? Pakistan fooled the whole world in the name of war on terror, whereas she stealthily went on training terrorists to attack Mumbai and other targets. Pakistan thought she was over smart and would take cover under the American or Chinese wings! But for Headley having given away the information about Osama's residence in Abbotabad in Pakistan under the safe protection of the Pakistan Army, the game would have gone on for ever. India refuses to work out any strategic quick response plans to thwart Pakistan's unholy designs on India only for misconceived vote bank politics. Pakistan has greater designs on India than India can ever imagine.It wants to revive the Mughaliya rule on India. It rightly thinks the west as its enemy(?)number one, because the Mughal rule came to an end because of the western powers only. Indians as usual were happy to serve the masters:Mughal, British or others. Taking a nationalistic stand is as dangerous as working transparently as a senior officer in the corrupt government. Is it the case of the celebrators that neither RAW nor IB nor MI nor Police were able to gather the facts that Headley is revealing now in the American courts? Should we be going to America like a crying child complaining that our stand has been vindicated,hoping perhaps, that the punishment (to Pakistan) will also be meted out by America! Are the people of India--the aam aadmi--not entitled to know the government's plans for Pakistan in this age of transparency, RTI etc, so that public response to the imminent atomic misadventure from Pakistan is met effectively without loss of any time at all? Pakistan will certainly do that and use the services of the non-state agents she has recruited in large numbers and who are prepared to die for some money or imaginary place called heaven.Vindication not enough, punitive strike only answer. Do it or suffer atomic disaster at their hand. State can not afford to be sentimental!!!!!

M L Gupta

CCTV Footage of Station

A copy of CCTV footage for 5 days of Andheri Railway Station, Mumbai was denied u/s 8 (1) (a) claiming that it would be detrimental to the Nation's security. The appellant argued that the location is not a prohibited area and is available on commercial charges for films, TV serials etc.. He also claimed that the CCTV will provide instances of RPF personnel taking bribes from illegal hawkers against which he has lodged a complaint. The contention of the appellant that any individual with a small camera/mobile phone can capture footage of any train or any corner of the platform was accepted by the CIC. The Commission made a distinction between those CCTV cameras which are in full public view and which are hidden. It was held that the footage of CCTV cameras kept at secret locations cannot be shared as it would indeed reveal the location of these cameras. The CIC directed to allow the Appellant to watch the footage of only those CCTV cameras which have been placed in full view of the public in the presence of PIO for the period of 5 days and if the Appellant's allegation against RPF personnel taking bribes from illegal hawkers is found true from this footage, to give a copy of that visual.

Comments

CCTVs are used in many areas including possible soft targets for a terrorist attacks. This order opens up the access to all such recorded data in public interest even when it is perceived as security risk.

(Mr.Samir Vijay Zaveri v. Western Railway, Mumbai in CIC/AD/A/2011/000439)

- 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)