What people say about us !

I am frequent visitor to 'Whispers in the Corridors'. It is the best website I have read and refer to my peers. I find both the news from the civil service and the corporate world from India to be fascinating.

Jose

Aaj Ki Aawaz

Some say Kiran Bedi was padding her travel bills.... some call it deceitful..... Congress's pally Media is gunning for Kiran!!!! First and foremost the benefits of the gallantry award are for hers and only hers!!! And what she did with the 'reimbursement' given to her by NGOs is her business!!! There is no corruption whatsoever in this!!!! And then the 'excess' billing went to her NGO!! In fact what goes to her credit is that despite being given Business Class airfare she travelled Economy so that her NGO could get more money to fulfill its mission!!! As a Cop, when she had the opportunity to make money, if she did not indulge in corruption I do not think she'd indulge in corruption now!! And kudos to Team Anna Members..... Congress is getting all the Agencies to go through their past and present with a fine toothcombs and if this is all they've been able to come up with then I can understand Congress's desperation to make such 'minor issues' into 'huge issues'!!!!

What Kiran has done could be construed as technically wrong!!!

'Dill/neeyat sachcha/sachchi aur kaam jhoota'....fiddling the lyrics of a yesteryear song!!

Rahul's opening Speech at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies 20th Anniversary was indeed pathetic and that is the reason it was 'banned' from being aired on TV!!! Many who attended it were of the opinion that 'he just read out what was given to him'!!!! It is indeed very easy to judge if a person has knowledge of the subject he or she is delivering his speech on!! And there was no 'interaction'... no question and answers.......and we all know why????? A little birdie tells me that at first they did plan for 'questions to be put to Rahul'.... of course he'd have got the questions and would have been given the answers in advance ......but then this idea was dropped as 'suppose someone interjected with a question emanating from the answer that Rahul gave'...... chori pakdi jaathi!!!! If nothing else at least Rahul should get a good speechwriter....his zero hour speech in Parliament and this one really have made his stock fall even further!!

Mere Bhai by just wearing specs and carrying books one does not become intelligent!!!!

And if they thought they'd make Rahul look intelligent this way then his think tank is being unintelligent!!

Mohna says Anna has brought corruption 'top of the agenda'.... meaning now Anna you've done your job and leave the 'rest to us'!!!!! But ask Anna and he'll say his objective to get India 'a corruption fighter' or Lokpal!! As it is no one takes Mohna seriously so his hint to Anna has just 'blown with the wind'!!!!! Congress takes the RTI Law to be a 'self inflicted curse'!!! Mohna feels his justifying 'watering down' will do the job…. nowadays when he opens his mouth people say 'abh kaunsa jhoot bollne waala hai Mohna'!!! Pawar feels the Food Bill will dent the Exchequer to such an extent that there will be no money for infrastructure etc...... however if Food Ministry is given back to Pawar he will change his tune!!! Inflation is in double digits and as usual UPA's 'Inflation will come down' 'Town Crier' is out.... Montek says by March inflation will be down to 8%!!!! Of course when inflation does not come down in March Montek will say it'll come down by December!!!

This Sarkaar is a joke being played on us!!!!

In Hissar the cry was 'abh yeh Sarkaar se ho gayi hai buss'!!

PS.... Digvijaya and Azad have been sent to the 'front' (UP Encephalitis areas) ..... Rahul has got a medical certificate not to go near these areas…. It's issued by one Dr. Farooukh Abdullah!!!! In Hissar now Congress is ready to 'spite its own nose to save face'..... JP has been ordered to say that Birender Singh and Selja were responsible for his losing the election.... but fact is JP lost because of the huge Nationwide anti Congress wave and Anna's call!! Hillary's comment on snakes in Pakistan's backyard …..for her info India is longer the Country of snake charmers!! They say the AFSPA should cover J&K CM House!

Bharat Kumar
aaj_ki_aawaz@yahoo.com

Congress loses deposit in TamilNadu elections (UPDATED)
Congress has lost deposit in almost all 10 Municipal corporations besides several municipalities and town panchayats in TamilNadu

Arjun Munda Jharkhand Chief Minister back from foreign (UPDATED)
Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda is back from his tour to Toronto & USA.He had led a high powered delegation. It comprised Chief Secretary S.K.Chaudhary, Principal Secretary to CM D.K. Tiwari, Secretary Industries A.P.Singh, Arun Shukla Managing Director(MD) of the Jharkhand Mineral Development Corporation & Mr. Rajeev Lochan Bakshi Additional Secretary to the CM.Besides a number of entrepreneurs had accompanied him.

A Maharashtrian now Dy. Mayor in Belgaum Municipal corporation

Renu Killekar has won the post of Deputy Mayor Municipal Corporator in the recently held election of Belgaum Municipal Corporation. This is a strong affirmation of the Maharashtrian's claiming Belgaum as a part of Maharashtra.

Toll collection gets a spotlight in Maharashtra
The policy of Build Own & Transfer (BOT) is likely to come under scanner over how much money and for how many years it could be collected. However, now the spotlight is on how much money has been collected by the private players from various highways in Mumbai? Experts say this could be an eye opener as no
one knows that as to how much money has been collected in past years, after the construction was completed and whether the money collected was more than the actually agreed sum while bidding. Experts also concede that this could very well be the beginning of a larger policy decision and could be implemented
on other such BOT projects too. Though it could caution the enthusiasm of private participation if things were not reviewed correctly, warn experts.

Is Ajit Pawar going through a bad phase?
Maharashtra's corridors of power are abuzz with the bad hase that is causing a lot of trouble for Ajit Pawar. Controversies don't seem to leave him. First, it was showdown with media people, then came the power issue & now a rout of the NCP in Khadakwasala by polls that have engulfed Ajit Pawar's prestige .

BUREAUCRACY

Chauhan is Joint Secretary in MHA
Satpal Chauhan has joined as Joint Secretary Home in the Government of India. He is a 1983 batch IES officer.

Bhargava to be Director (Finance), IREDA
S K Bhargava is being tipped to be new Director (Finance) of the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA).

Amita Sharma is PS Backward Class and Minority Welfare in MP
On return from central deputation Ms Amita Sharma has been posted as Principal Secretary Backward Class and Minority Welfare in Madhya Pradesh. She is a 1981 batch IAS officer.

IDAS officer is new Member-Secretary, Tariff Commission
Arunava Dutt has joined the Tariff Commission as Member-Secretary. He is a 1978 batch IDAS officer.

Bhatt is new Deputy Secretary, Defence
Ramesh Chandra Bhatt has joined as Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Defence. He is a 1995 batch ICAS officer.

Ranjan is Deputy Secretary, Forests in GoI
Shaily Ranjan has joined the Government of India as Deputy Secretary in the department of Forests and Environment. He is a 2001 batch IFS officer of J & K cadre.

Ms. Hena Usman is Deputy Secretary Tourism, GoI
Ms. Hena Usman (IPoS-1999 batch) has joined as Deputy Secretary, Tourism in the Government of India (GoI).
(We said this on October 14,2011)

Kohli posted in Chandigarh
FA in the NDMA S. K. Kohli on return from central deputation has been posted as PCDA (WC) in Chandigarh. He is a 1981 batch IDAS officer.

Srivastava is now PS, Science and Technology in Sikkim
Alok Kumar Shrivastava, IAS (SK-1984), on repatriation from the post of Project Director, North East Rural Livelihood Project on deputation under Ministry of DONER, has now been posted as Principal Secretary, Science and Technology Department in Sikkim.

Aslam is acting VC of IGNOU
M Aslam has taken over as the acting vice-chancellor of the IGNOU.Five year tenure of the VC VN Rajasekharan Pillai has expired.

Raj Kumar to be Director, Defence
Raj Kumar on central deputation is poised to be Director, Defence. He is an Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officer of 1997 batch.

Akhil Arora assigned addl charge of DG, Revenue in Rajasthan
Akhil Arora, Secretary, Budget, has been assigned additional charge of Director General, State Revenue Intelligence Directorate (Finance Department), in Rajasthan. He is a 1993 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre.

Pakistan : Apex court wants out of turn allottees of govt accommodation evicted
Pakistan's apex court has desired that eviction proceedings should be initiated against 'out of turn' allottees of government accommodation in Islamabad. Appearing before the court in person the federal housing secretary Kamran Lashari informed that there were only 26000 housing units against half a million federal government employees in Islamabad and nearly 25% of the total available pool (6294 houses) have been allotted 'out of turn'. Chief Justice Iftekhar Chowdhary asked the Housing Secretary to start eviction proceedings against all such allottees and also initiate action against those officers of the Estate office who participated in the illegal allotments. 'Tell us if anybody pressurises you; the Court shall protect you' the CJ assured Lashari.

Tremendous scope of use of steel in rural markets, says SAIL Chairman(UPDATED)
Chairman, CII National Committee on Steel, C S Verma, who is also Chairman, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), has said that there was tremendous scope of use of steel in Indian rural markets. Addressing a Conference on Enhancing Steel Consumption in India organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Lucknow on October 21, he further mentioned that India is enhancing its share in steel use at the global level and is currently on a growth phase. He stated that the Indian growth rate stands at 4.3 per cent at the global level during the year 2011. The global steel consumption is expected to grow by 6.5 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively in 2011 and 2012. The conference was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Steel Beni Prasad Verma and addressed among others by P K Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Govt. of India, A P Choudhary, Chairman & MD, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd and Ved Krishna, Chairman, CII UP State Council & MD, Yash Papers Ltd.

Bachittar Singh gets extension (UPDATED)
Joint Secretary in the department of Tribal Affairs Bachittar Singh has been given extension in deputation tenure till December 31. He is 1983 batch IAS officer of UP cadre.

(DEBATE)
LOKPAL BILL AND BUREAUCRACY
The debate on Lokpal Bill and the subsequent anger and protests across the country led by veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare has instilled a fear of accountability among the bureaucracy. How should the bureaucrats react to the situation?
Mail your views to suresh.mehrotra@yahoo.com or mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com

CORPORATE

Kirpal is new CEO of WelcomHeritage Hotels
Sanjay Kirpal is the new Chief Executive Officer of WelcomHeritage Group of Hotels.

Rakesh Jain is new CEO, RGI
Rakesh Jain has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Director of the Reliance General Insurance.

Vijay Kumar Agrawal is MD of ABCIL
Vijaykumar Ramratan Agrawal has been appointed as Managing Director of the Aditya Birla Chemicals (ABCIL) with effect from October 24, 2011.

McCann's Satya Prakash joins BPTP as GM-Marketing
Satya Prakash has quit McCann Erickson as Business Director after a stint of four and a half years with the agency, where he was handling brands like Dabur, Compaq, Videocon, Subway, Hitachi and Metlife. He has joined BPTP as GM-Marketing from October 19, 2011. In a career spanning 12 years, this is his second stint at the client side.

Vijay Kapoor joins QuikRelations as CEO
Vijay Kapoor has been brought on board as Chief Executive Officer of QuikRelations, a PR consultancy having pan-India operations through its network offices in 20 states of the country. Kapoor is a veteran of many media and services conglomerates.

Rao appointed Workmen Employee Director, Canara Bank
The Union Government has appointed G V Sambasiva Rao Special Assistant, Canara Bank as Workmen Employee Director on the Board of Directors of Canara Bank for a period of three years with effect from October 21, 2011.

Srivastava appointed Part-time Chairman, Container Corporation of India
Union Ministry of Railways has appointed K K Srivastava, Member (Traffic), Railway Board as Part-time Chairman on the Board of Container Corporation of India Ltd w.e.f. October 20, 2011

Rana ceases to be Director, Gujarat Industries Power Company Ltd
P H Rana has ceased to be Director of Gujarat Industries Power Company Ltd w.e.f. October 21, 2011.

Puri appointed Director, Gujarat Industries Power Company Ltd
Mukesh Puri, IAS, has been appointed as Director of Gujarat Industries Power Company Ltd w.e.f October 21, 2011 .

Modi appointed Addl. Director, MBL Infrastructures Ltd
R D Modi has been appointed as an Independent (Additional) Director of MBL Infrastructures Ltd with effect from October 21, 2011.

Shah appointed Non Exec. Director, Tarapur Transformers Ltd
Mrugen Harishchandra Shah has been appointed as Non Executive Independent Director of Tarapur Transformers Ltd. w.e.f. September 23, 2011.

Lokpal Bill or no Bill

I agree with Upreti that Lokpal Bill or no Bill, rooting out corruption must be from within, an innate quality that every individual needs to develop. This, as rightly stated, comes from following a strict discipline by oneself. But at the same time, the Lokpal Bill, I must say, is a beginning and needs to be put in place as early as possible, similarly as the RTI Act has ushered in a certain self-imposed discipline on the part of bureaucrats in their notes on the file. On the flip side, the RTI Act has stymied the free thinking on issues.

K S Palachandran

Keep it up WIC and keep out dictatorial babus' demands

Shortly after the publication of some correct reports about a ministry babu sitting in Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan and holding three FA posts in addition to a DG post,a demand appeared in this column that this Forum should publish letters only from office emails. What this means is that all emails other than those sent by babus misusing their office email, should be censored out so that babus' planted self-promotional publicity will get unchallenged passage here and should not get exposed by knowledgeable people from outside. This is the typical Emergency-type dictatorial mindset of these megalomaniacal babus who wish to see their name appear here every other day even when there is no worthwhile story to project them.

Congrats to WIC for keeping out such authoritarian demands and keeping up a free and open Forum which is the pride of all readers.

K P Singh

"Informative letter on Kashmir."

Both N N Ojha and N Krishnan have over reacted to Prashant Bhushan's statement on plebiscite in Kashmir. Why should we give undue importance to him?

Tarun Vajpai

Limited vision of Indian history?

Why do some of the viewers have such a limited vision of Indian history? Kashmir, in its present mutilated form cannot alone be an integral part of India. The fact is that after Nehru accepted the Mountbatten plan to divide India along communal lines India lost its moral case not only in Kashmir but also in Junagadh as they were Muslim majority states. Nehru and the Congress cannot claim to be secular after this gross betrayal of the country's national interests. Nehru was so in the grip of Mountbatten and his nymphomaniac wife , Edwina, that he even accepted a mere dominion status for India in 1947, apart from accepting partition. Remember the partition took place after 15th August 1947 in order to cause maximum loss of life and create civil war conditions in India. Dominion status without partition was on the table from the British side as early as 1919 but a headstrong and idiotic young Nehru rejected it outright and demanded Poorna Swaraj or full independence. This angered the British and they turned vindictive and what did Nehru get after nearly 30 years? Only Dominion status on par with Australia and New Zealand and an India mutilated and bleeding to death after partition. In that holocaust fully 3 million Indians , both Hindus and Muslims lost their lives and nearly 5 million people became refugees over night. Not a single Englishman lost his life as Nehru and Gandhi, both British stooges and colonial collaborators had promised Mountbatten a safe passage to the English. To add insult to injury Mountbatten was retained by so called free India as its Governor-General instead of jailing him for colonial war crimes. It is Mountbatten who is responsible for the Kashmir mess. After the guierella invasion of the state by Pakistan, it was Mountbatten who saw to it that Kashmir was dragged into the United Nations when Britain to this day has not referred Northern Ireland to the UN for resolution. Taking it to the UN ensured that the West could interfere forever and see to it that the issue was never solved. Now that both the US and Britain are sinking in the Atlantic Ocean like the Titanic the nations of South Asia should take their destinies into their own hands and evolve a common strategy to face a common threat in China. SAARC was a good beginning. We must strengthen it and ensure a move towards a South Asian Confederation with a common defence and foreign policy. This would automatically solve the Kashmir issue. Pakistan under General Ayub Khan had offered Nehru a no-war pact but Nehru stupidly rejected it. It is now time to undo the mistakes of the past and move towards a South Asian Confederation.

D. Choudhury

Increasing interest rates for GPF

Regarding increasing the interest rates for GPF - I would like to support the views expressed in favour of increasing the rate of interest at par with EPF as both are open for investment ande while all other interest rates are increasing with the time, increasing of rate of interest of GPF also needs pondering by the Government and positive decision to be taken to avoid discrimination.

Mukesh Randev

Why our prosecution agencies are silent ?

It is really sad to see that while USA's SEC has investigated & prosecuted and levied penalties still our very own Government of India and its prosecution agencies are totally silent. Why ? Also , this advisory board has people of supposed eminence and stature. What motivated them to join this seemingly corrupt organisation, as the report suggests ? The composition is also very interesting, a pillar of banking establishment (Deepak Parekh), a member of the Rajya Sabha and member of PM's economic council (Dr Ashok Ganguly), a captain of Industry from a state where this company has no presence (Alagappan from Tamil Nadu) and an influential ex head of the civil service & ambassador to USA (Mr Naresh Chandra) .

All of them collaborating with a multinational to sell more liquor to Indians !!! Shining India !!!

One can imagine that for this act of nation building they must be contributing free - It will solve many issues when every one is drunk and happy and bankrupt :)

Qu..

UID is utter non-sense, waist of public money

The real motive of UID information is something else. I really just do not understand how many I-card one has to carry besides bundles of passwords. High technology has already made us mad. I-card includes ATM, debit and credit cards (min. 04) CGHS card, election card, ration card, bank cards, insurance card, hospital icards, office i-card or pensioners card, LPG, TV channels Tata sky etc card and God knows how many more beside host of passwords --and if you don't use these passwords than you have too struggle to get again, which is not so easy and besides now so called UID card. If UID replaces all other cards, it makes sense otherwise it is the mockery of the technology and the system. With the background of UID chief it was not expected from him to do the way UID has been planned, besides the number of professionals engaged for the routine and system of 1970 in 2010.Can any body question UID the way it is at present. I am sure this is another scam in the making?

RK

Welcome to U K Verma

Welcome to U K Verma in the Ministry of I&B and best wishes for the assignment.

Kuldeep Dhatwalia

TAIL-PIECE

Sonia Gandhi in Kaun Banega Karodpati

Amitabh: Soniaji, ab aakhri saval, 5 Crore ke liye.

Who is the chief minister of Gujarat?

And, your options are...

A) Laloo Prasad.

B) Vilasrao Deshmukh.

C) Arjun Singh.

D) Narendra Modi.

Soniaji : It's Narendra Modi.

Amitabh : Are you sure ? Lock kar doon?

Sonia : If you really lock him up, I will give you 100 Crores!

Contributed by=Satya Singal

File notings regarding reinstatement
The appellant sought information about reinstatement of her service including reasons for filing an appeal against the CAT decision before High Court, the names of officials involved in decision regarding the file an application before High Court along with the file notings, total expenses incurred during filing of the appeal, copy of the minutes of the Governing Body meeting etc. The desired file notings including the names of the officers were refused u/s 8(1)(g) claiming that it is likely to endanger the life or physical safety of such officers. The Commission observed that it is a very sad comment on the employees of an organization if an organization claims that a former employee who is a lady is capable of physically harming its officers. The Commission directed the PIO to severe the names of the officers as per Section 10 and give a typed copy of notings to the Appellant. The Commission directed to provide the total legal expenses incurred in
the matter and a copy of the minutes of the Governing Body meeting.

Comments

The PIO should not try to invoke section 8(1)(g) indiscriminately in every legal or vigilance case without looking into whether the physical safety of any official would be jeopardized.

Smt. Rajni Bajaj v. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in CIC/SG/A/2011/002273/15097

- 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)