What people say about us !

Information available on your website is really useful and one has to surge this website to get update of happenings in government circles. I have been reading this website almost seven years now.
Mukesh Randev

Aaj Ki Aawaz

NC has simply lost it...... Omar got one his flunkies to make a statement that Army was behind the grenade attacks....meaning Army did not want the AFSPA to be revoked!!!! Though later this statement was retracted!!!! His stint has been riddled with one controversy after another!!! The NC Fixer's 'murder' is still raging!!! By the way what did Rahul and Omar discuss during their recent visit.... they say they discussed the future of J&K.... is it possible that they discussed withdrawal of AFSPA.....because in the initial stages it looked as if someone had ordered the Bureaucracy 'to play ball'????

Rahul too is prone to hare-brain schemes!!!!

His faux pas ka gunny bag like Omar's is now bursting as its seams!!!

After the 2 G note that is making the Government squirm now Bureaucrats have been warned about penning notes!!! And as you know Government is already on the job to get the RTI act watered down!!! It is also said Government wants to reign in the Media and Social Media, which today is the alternative Media!!! If Sonia has her way in about six months we Indians will get a feeling of what it means to be a Chinese Citizen, when it comes to information and expressions of views!! Congress for years has been under 'expression of of views' emergency!!

Sonia has got an autocrats mindset and believes in autocracy!!!

Team Anna is on attack from all sides!!! They've also been beaten 'black and blue' .... as a warning!!! There is no doubt what Kiran has done is technically wrong.... and I think she needs to make a clean breast of matters!!! Like why doesn't she make public the trips that she's made on her own.... she's said that the money saved/made from her paid trips was used to fund trips where the NGOs could not afford paying for her airfare!! But having said this please let me repeat what I said a few days back..... if Sonia's hairdresser and cook were subjected to the same investigation like Team Anna has been subjected to do not be surprised if it's found that the hairdresser and cook have made millions... after all 'beheti Ganga mein they too would have taken a few jug fulls'!! You have Tavleen Singh bashing Kiran black and blue.....now hasn't she heard of the adage that people in glass houses should not throw stones.......and its said she too has quite a few skeletons in her cupboard!!! Guess why Tavleen sees no wrong in Lavasa.... agrees with Pawar on his objections to the Food Bill..... and thinks Omar is a blessing to the Valley????

As long as Anna is leading the movement I think we should all stand behind his Team!!!!

Even those who feel 'over the black coffee' Anna is like cream!!

This Diwali I am cent percent sure that the intake by UPA Ministers has fallen in comparison to previous Diwali!!!! And I'm cent percent sure the intake of BJP Top Guns has gone up in comparison to previous Diwali!! I'm also cent percent sure that UPA Netas have taken a note of this.... though I'm not so sure that they've analysed why this has taken place!!!! I know of a trick that a senior but controversial TN Congress Leader plays....... he selects a few gifts delivered at him home and takes these to his Office and has his APS call those who have gifted the gifts to come and collect the gifts 'as he does not accept Diwali gifts'.... the message he tries to send via this is that he's honest!

Diwali is the celebration of victory of good over evil!!!

But when it comes to Netas .... it is like goodness get beaten by the Devil!!

PS..... funnily Salman 'motor mouth' Kursheed has nothing to say on Whistleblowers being jailed and crooks walking free.... if you recall he wanted Judiciary to let off Corporate Crooks in the name of 'investment'! The Joke doing the rounds is that if Pawar wants his Lavaasa headache to go then he needs to meet one Dr. Robert... this Doctor has solved many such headache!!! The way defunct Satellites and Satellite junk is falling on earth it would be prudent to take Satellite Hit Insurance for yourself and your assets!!

Bharat Kumar
aaj_ki_aawaz@yahoo.com

Balu and Ajit Singh to join Union Cabinet?
Lok Dal Chief Ajit Singh and T R Balu from the DMK quota are expected to join the Union Cabinet soon.

Will BJP get Brahmin support in UP?
After the departure of Atal Behari Vajpayee there is no Brahmin factor for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. Will the BJP get the support of Brahmins this time?

BUREAUCRACY

26 IAS officers of 1978 batch empanelled to the rank of Secretary in GoI
Altogether 26 IAS officers belonging to 1978 batch are believed to have been empanelled to the rank of Secretary in the Government of India on Tuesday. Now the list is lying with the Prime Minister for his signature.

17 IAS officers of 1978 batch empanelled to the rank of Secretary Equivalent
As many as 17 IAS officers belonging to 1978 batch are believed to have been empanelled to the rank of Secretary equivalent in the Government of India.

43 plus 8 had made it in 1977 batch of IAS
As many as 43 plus 8 IAS officers of 1977 batch were empanelled for the appointment as Secretaries/Secretary equivalent in the Government of India (GoI).

Bhaskar Chatterjee appointed DG IICA
Outgoing Secretary Public Enterprises in the Government of India Bhaskar Chatterjee will now head as DG Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs. He is a retired 1975 batch IAS officer of Orissa cadre. His tenure will be for five years.
( We said this on October 14 )

Who will be new FC, Railway Board?
Who will be new Financial Commissioner (FC) in Railway Board? This question is hot topic of discussion in the Ministry of Railways. As it is, Ms. Pompa Babbar, FC in Railway Board, is due to superannuate on November 30, 2011.

Pankaj Saran gets extension
Joint Secretary in the PMO Pankaj Saran has been granted six months extension in deputation tenure beginning November 1. He is a 1982 batch IFS officer.

Thy name is world!
Former Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar was recently in Delhi as a part of Kerala delegation to participate in the NDC meeting. During lunch hour all the additional Secretaries and Secretaries who used to roam around him tried to distance themselves and Chandrasekhar who is presently Vice Chairman of the Kerala Planning Board had to join the queue to pick the plate .

Ms.Sulekha Verma to be Director, Sports
Ms. Sulekha Verma, on central deputation, is poised to be a Director, Sports. She is an IRS-IT officer of 1990 batch.

Two vacancies of Members in UPSC
Presently, there are two vacancies of Member in the Union Public Service Commission.

Ms Srivastava moves to Andman and Nicobar Islands
Ms Punya Salila Srivastava has moved to Andman and Nicobar Islands as Secretary Labour, Transport and Shipping. She is a 1993 batch IAS officer of UT cadre.

CVC for fine on 5 officers of Dena Bank
The Central Vigilance commission (CVC) has filed an application of request to impose fine on five officers of the Dena Bank facing corruption charge.

Why does Maharashtra not want Ramesh Kumar ?
Ramesh Kumar retired as Additional Chief Secretary of Maharashtra last year had got an appointment as member of Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal. However the state is denying him a posting for the same and has even advertised post again. This is despite the fact that Kumar moved to the Mumbai High Court which upheld his contention and ordered that he should be appointed immediately as MET is a judicial body and not an extension of General Administration Department (GAD). However the state government has now moved to the Supreme Court which is due to hear the case on November 8.

Files pending in UPSC
Recently appointed Secretary in UPSC is not settled yet with the result that hundreds of files relating to DPC, Appointment and other issues are pending for more than 10 days.

Post of Executive Member in NCA vacant
The post of Executive Member, Narmada Control Authority (NCA), Indore, on deputation basis, is vacant. Those willing to apply for the above post may send their applications to the Department of personnel, Government of India.

NBCC pays handsome dividend to govt (UPDATED)
Vishnu P Das, CMD of NBCC, presented a dividend cheque of Rs 28.07 crore (in addition to Dividend Distribution Tax of Rs.4.66 crore) to Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Urban Development, Government of India for the year 2010-11. Dr. Sudhir Krishna, Secretary (UD), R C Mishra, Additional Secretary (UD), Ajay K Garg, Director (Finance), NBCC and other senior officers of the Ministry and NBCC were present at this simple function held in New Delhi. This is the 5th consecutive year since 2006-07, that NBCC has paid dividend to the Government raising its total contribution to Rs. 142.17 crore against Government investment in the Corporation as equity of Rs. 90 crore. It is also worth mentioning that NBCC has achieved Income of Rs. 3231.45 crore, an increase of 7% over previous year, earned a net profit before Tax of Rs. 209.63 crore, earned a net profit after Tax of Rs. 140.34 crore and net worth of Rs.654.14 crore for the year 2010-11, an increase of 20% over previous year on all accounts.

Interviews for LIC's CMD on October 29 (UPDATED)
Interviews for the slot of LIC's Chairman and Managing Director(CMD) are likely to be held
on October 29,2011.

Interviews for selecting 2 Insurance co CMD on October 29 (UPDATED)
Interviews for selecting CMDs against two vacancies in Insurance sector are likely to be held on October 29,2011. Among others front runners are:M.A. Kharat, Ms. Asha Nair, N.K. Singh & Neeraj Kumar.

26,1978 batch IAS officers empanelled ? (UPDATED)
Altogether 26 IAS officers belonging to 1978 batch IAS have reportedly been empanelled to the rank of Secretary in the Government of India.Those who reportedly figure in the list are Mssrs K N Desiraju,Vivek Rae, Sanjay kothari, ,Saurabh Chandra, Pankaj Jain,Javed Usmani, Rajiv Mehrishi,Arvind Mayaram,Rakesh Singh, ,G C Pati,Prem Narain,Anoop Mishra,S K Srivastava,S R Rao,Sudhir Kumar,Anil Goswami,Vijay Chibbar,R S Sharma,M H Farooqui,K N Srivastava,V Rajgopalan,U K Sharma,Pankaj Agrawal,S N Kackar ,Ashish Bahuguna and R Bhattacharya.

(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

Tug of war between two Union Ministers ?
Corporate Affairs Minister and Union Finance Minster are having an interesting fight over Reddy Mining Brothers and Dr Subotro Roy of Sahara India. Finance Minister does not want information on various benami companies abroad and in India owned by Dr Roy and his extended family to be shared by Corporate Affairs with SEBI or Courts or RTI while Corporate Affairs Minister wants to protect Reddys of Mining fame from courts.

Maharashtra's farm economics does not brighten this Diwali
People in the production of cotton in major cotton growing areas like Nagpur, Wardha, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Bhandara and Gondia are getting to be worrisome this Diwali. This year will the farmers get a good selling price for their crop will define whether they will sow cotton next year. Most farmers especially in Yavatmal which is the biggest cotton growing region smuggle raw cotton to Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh which is also the biggest center in Asia for cotton trade.However overproduction of Soyabean this year is likely to dampen the price of the crop and the farmers are in a fix over whether they will get handsome returns for Soya as against cotton this Diwali

Hasenoehrl appointed Business Development head of Rolls Royce
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has appointed Herfried Hasenoehrl as the Head of Business Development for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Rajib Sekhar is Director HZL
Rajib Sekhar of Orissa has been appointed Director Hindustan Zinc Ltd..

"WIC Impact."

The Government is embarrassed by the CAT quashing the appointment of CSI. An inquiry has been ordered into how was it misled about the ineligibility of TCA Anant for selection as CSI. Some heads might roll. There is also a move to post an IAS officer as Secretary MOSPI. (Officers of ISS)

The writer has failed to understand the subject and range covered. Obviously she has not cared to read the Outlook article referred to. For the record, it was Karl Marx who coined the expression "vatican of capitalism". I hope the writer understands the significance. Besides, we are writing in English, a language with such wonderful flexibility of meaning of the word. I wonder if she understands the nuiance of the power of the word i.e. 'vyanjana' in this case. And finally, WIC is no forum for religious writings- I have nothing to do with religious writing, as I don't understand any religion, for I have not "studied" religion, philosophy or any of its branches.

Incidentally, The Vatican is a State and its Ambassador is stationed in Delhi (India). The Vatican is a full member of the UNO.The birth of democracy owes it to the war between the temporal and the spiritual in the western world .I have no interest in joining issues with anybody, but such superficial but motivated posts betray lack of depth and civility. The writer owes an apology to me.

M.L. Gupta

L'affaire de Kiran, Kejriwal, et al!

Be that as it may, do act(s) of (personal) wrongdoing on part of individuals take away from the merit of the larger cause that is being espoused (by them more forcefully and with greater impact) or their right to raise the issue and demand institutional corrective(s) for the malady that has gripped the decrepit system? Wily nilly all seem to have contributed to its deterioration and even as awareness appears to be dawning on the collective consciousness, sinister moves (whether out of plain jealousy or perceived bigger threats)are afoot to demonize the role of messenger(s) and discredit the message. Human failings abound and we are all frail and found wanting in some respect or other. Let us avail opportunities to apply correctives and not muddy waters further lest we sink in the morass of our own making. Let us avoid the trap of moral nihilism and bequeath to succeeding generations at least democratic environment of rational discourse, discussion and debate.

Happy Diwali.

S.K. Tewari.

Kiran Bedi has not done anything wrong

Kiran bedi has not committed anything wrong at all. The perception is being diverted by congress which is full of moral turpitude in behaviour. They twist facts. She is not under any service rule of a fake moral service rules of PSUs which are violated surreptiously by all babus and officers particularly bureaucracy. In stead of answering people on Lok Pal this diversion has started with the help of media to vilify the demands of Anna. Anna should not relent

Venkat

Application seeking indiscriminate information

The appellant had sought 08 paras of information regarding generation of power in various States and related information. The CIC quoted the Supreme Court judgment in Civil Appeal No. 6454 of 2011 (CBSE & Anrs Vs Aditya Bandopadhaya & Ors) while disposing the appeal. The Commission observed that the Right to Information is a cherished right but it has to be exercised with restraint. The requested information should be useful to the information seeker either personally or it should be useful socially or nationally. Wanton demand for information without any meaningful purpose behind it can not be countenanced as it puts undue strain on the limited resources of the public authority. Besides, collection, collation and transmission of information entails costs to the public authority.

Comments

In regard to information other than those enumerated in subsection (b) and (c) of section 4(1) of the RTI Act, equal importance and emphasis should be given to other public interests like confidentiality of sensitive information, fiduciary relationships, efficient operation of governments, etc.. The RTI Act should not be allowed to be misused in a manner where indiscriminate demands are made in the name of seeking information.

Ashok Kumar v. Ministry of Power in CIC/LS/A/2011/002230

- 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)