What people say about us !

Your efforts and your work is outstanding. My objection is that why do you publish so much about Maharashtra politics that too of lower level?

Arvind Sharma

Aaj Ki Aawaz

IMAGINARY MEETING AT TEN JANPATH

Seeing the plummeting image of Congress Sonia called a Brainstorming Meeting at 10 Janpath......invitees were ..... Mohna, Antony, Pranab, PC and Rahul!! Ahmed Patel was on a day's casual leave and Divedi was ordered to minute the meeting!!

Mohna: Honourable Madam Ji first and foremost I'd like to express that all of us are immensely relieved that Madam Ji you have started making Public appearances after your undisclosed surgery for an undisclosed illness..... the message that is going out is you are back to work........ please stand up and let us sing our Party's anthem.... all decisions big or small Madam takes them all.... we are her minions and we do not have any opinions (all those present excepting Sonia and Rahul join him)!!

Sonia: Thank you..... first let me express my disappointment ... during my absence Congress's image has taken a steeper fall.... who was responsible for jailing Anna???

PC: Madam it was a collective decision!!!

Pranab: No ... I had advised that Anna should not be arrested..... but at that time PC had whispered something in PM's ear and PM had opined..... spare the rod and spoil Anna..... PM felt that we were responsible for making Anna and his lot 'more and more adventurous'!!!

Sonia: I think it was a blunder......yesterday we were at Ramilila Grounds and I could literally feel the anti Congress mood..... heard people saying 'this is Congress's atyachaar bhoomi'.... I heard someone even say 'Ravans are hear to burn down Ravan'!!!!! What have you fools done?????

Mohna: Madam ji on behalf of my Cabinet I apologize......

Sonia: Manmohan ji give it a break.... your apology is like the apology I made you make for the 1984 riots... I know jailing Anna was not your decision!!!

PC: Madam Ji I felt that after we made Ramdev and his followers vacate Ramlila Grounds we'd be able to make Anna and his supporters also beat a retreat!

Sonia: You know Anna is not Ramdev...... in Ramdev's case I recall prior to the laathi charge you and Sibal had shown me a dossier of Ramdev's misdoings which we had been overlooking and which we then used to make his image take a beating!!! We've already exhausted our armory on giving Anna and other Civil Society Members a bad name... but they still stand tall!!

Sibal: Madam from Agnivesh I had info that Anna's 'I am a frugal eater' was all for show because Anna has a sweet tooth and does binge sometimes.... Kejriwal and Bedi's NGO's were under the scanner and we had a list of questions for them!!!

Sonia: Bah....questions....nothing concrete!!

Sibal : Madam PC and I had worded the questions in such a way that made them look guilty.... guilty till we did not pronounce them innocent and this we would not have done!!!

Sonia: PC and you.... you both have done enough damage...I've come to know every time either one of you appears on TV Congress's ratings fall!!! After a building fell in your constituency you went there and you were booed away!!!! And I know for a fact PC you've not been to your constituency for months!!!!! Now don't give me that 'Jaya will make trouble for me' excuse!!!

PC: Madam sorry......

Sibal : Madam Ji RSS workers usually reach these Sites to help out and they spread ill information about us.... even when Rahul went to RML he was booed!!!

Sonia: The lawyer in you is speaking... Rahul was booed because the Doctors at RML were not treating the blast victims promptly!!!! He was a victim of someone else's inefficiency!!!

Sibal: (muttering under his breath) Yeah he is doodh ka dhulla!!

Sonia: What did you say????

Sibal: Nothing Madam Ji ... I was just cursing myself!!!

Sonia: We have to do something about Rahul's image... now that Swamy fellow has tweeted that Rahul was treated for psychological problems.... what lies!!

Sibal: Madam I have drafted a Bill whereby all postings on Social Sites will be monitored by a Government Agency and this Agency will weed out all messages/postings that are negative towards Congress, Government and Gandhi family.... these messages will be termed as provocative .... aimed at causing turmoil in India!!

Sonia: Good idea....but please correct the sequence.... first comes Gandhi family!!

Mohna: Rahul should appear for an IQ test........say by IIM.....

Sonia: Manmohan Ji are you trying to solve the problem or compound it even more.......

Pranab: Well we can make Rahul appear for an IQ test by IIPM....prior to this I'll ensure we'll give 'thorns' to IIPM by putting IIPM under the IT and ED scanner!! I can assure you Rahul will come out with flying colours... leave this to me!!!!

Sonia: There is a reason why they call Pranab Da my Fire Fighter!!!!

Pranab: (stands up and salutes Sonia).....At your service Madam!!

Sonia: Modi is getting a bit too popular.... how do we handle him?????

PC: Somehow in the name of 'unbiased investigation' we get this Cop Bhatt out of Gujarat!!!! Rest I will manage!!!! Via a conduit I've been sending his wife messages and she's been making statements accordingly !!!!!

Sonia: Good.... by the way who managed the 'fez cap drama' when Modi was fasting!!!

Sibal: Madam that was me.........

Sonia: Mr. Smarty Pants did you think this out......this fez cap presentation made Modi a Hero with the majority.... the message that went out was ... he does not change his principles for vote bank politics...... in fact now I will not be able to dress like the locals do when I go for Rallies!! You fool Modi's fast was not to woo Muslims!!!! Antony Ji you've been very quite... a penny for your thoughts!!!

Antony: (looking very hurt): Madam Ji you know I incorruptible ...... even if someone gave me a lakhs of Rupees I would not speak in front of you till you asked me to do so...why do you want to give me a penny when you know you just have to order me!!! And in your absence I did try to speak during meetings but all those present ignored me!!

Sonia: Even Rahul!!!!

Antony: Madam I advised Rahul not to make that zero hour speech in Parliament but I was shouted down by PC and Sibal and Rahul did not say a word!!!

Rahul: Mummy I did ..... they did not listen to me!!!!!

Sonia: How dare they do this???? From now on we go back to the old way.... no speaking without my permission!!!

Rahul: But Mummy if any one of them still speaks without your permission!!!

Sonia: Out he or she goes!!!! Now let's end this meeting...... now remember we are back to the old days.... all decisions I take....I get the bouquets and you take the brickbats..... and Sibal and PC will stay away from the Media...... Pranab Da will now talk to the Media on my behalf!!!!

Rahul: Mummy what about me?????

Sonia: I forgot..... all bouquet begetting decisions will be attributed to Rahul......that reminds me why has Montek not raised the poverty line and attributed this to Rahul .......I was told this was well scripted to benefit Rahul's image.. and Rahul you will continue what you have been doing!!!

Rahul: Yippy..... Mom this will please you.... when I was coming in a Journo asked me about the IPad!! I said the I in the Ipad stands for Indhra..... our family is behind all the good that happens in the World!!

Sonia: Pranab Ji please find out which Journo he gave this statement and get it expunged....tell the Journo during PM's next oversees trip he or she will be a special invitee!!!! Rahul my dear you must follow the adage .....tenere mamma e sarete felici........ let these people stage manage dramas for you!!!

Divedi: Madam I have to minute this.... what did you say???
Sonia: Roughly it means 'ek chupp sau sukh'!!!

Bharat Kumar
aaj_ki_aawaz@yahoo.com

Ram and Ravan both praised Anna Hazare
After the effigy of Ravan was burnt on TV, Ram and Ravan were seen praising Anna Hazare.

BUREAUCRACY

V K Gupta is now Special Director in CBI
V K Gupta is now Special Director in the CBI. He is a 1977 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre.

Dept of Pharmaceuticals to be transferred to Union Ministry of Health ?
There is a serious move to transfer Department of Pharmaceuticals to the Union Ministry of Health.

K.K. Srivastava is MT, Railway Board
Finally on elevation, K. K. Srivastava, GM, East Central Railway (ECR), Hajipur, has joined as Member, Traffic Railway Board.
( We said this on August 19 )

Arunendra Kumar to be GM, SECR- Bilaspur
Arunendra Kumar, Additional Member -Production Unit (PU) in Railway Board on elevation will be GM, South East Central Railway (SECR), Bilaspur.

Indra Ghosh to be GM, East Coast Railway, Bhubaneshwar
Indra Ghosh Chief Operating Manager (COM) Western Railway will be GM, East Coast Railway Bhubaneshwar.

Sunil Arya to be GM, West Central Railway, Jabalpur
Sunil Arya Additional GM, Central Railway will be GM West Central Railway, Jabalpur,

Jagdev Kalia to be GM, CORE
Jagdev Kalia CEE South Central Railway will be GM, Central Organization for Railway Electrification (CORE), Allahabad.

Mahesh Kumar to be GM, Western Railway
Mahesh Kumar, Additional Member -Signals in Railway Board, will be GM Western Railway.

A. K. Khanna to be GM, ICF-Chennai
Abhay K. Khanna, Additional Member -Budget in Railway Board, will be GM Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai.

S. K. Jain to be GM, Central Railway
S. K. Jain, Chief Adminstrative Officer (CAO) - Western Railway, will be GM Western Railway.

A. K. Verma to be GM, SER-Kolkata
A. K. Verma, Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME), will be GM, South Eastern Railway (SER), Kolkata.

G. C. Agrawal to be GM, Eastern Railway
G. C. Agrawal, Principal Chief Engineer, Eastern Railway, will be GM, Eastern Railway, Kolkata.

Dalela to go to Washington
Indian Foreign Service officer Sudhakar, posted in the PMO is all set to join the Indian Embassy in Washington.

G.Sudhakar is Special Secretary, Home, New Delhi.
G.Sudhakar who so far was Director, NDMC has now joined as Special Secretary, Home NCT New Delhi. He is a DANICS officer of AGMU cadre.

Mishra to be empanelled!
Santosh Kumar Mishra is reportedly being empanelled to the rank of Joint Secretary in the Government of India. He is a 1983 batch IAS officer of Orissa cadre.

Justice Ajai Lamba to move to Allahabad HC ?
Grapevine has it that Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Ajai Lamba is being moved to the Allahabad High Court.

No salary in Air India
Today is October 8 and the Air India management has failed to disburse salaries to its employees.

Applications invited for MECL CMD's post
The PESB has invited applications for the post of CMD Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (MECL). Last date for filing applications is November 8.

Book of a retired IAS officer
A book written by a retired IAS officer K J S Chatrath "Some Vignettes of Balasore and its French Loge" has recently been published.

Dr Chawla to be Director, PGIMER, Chandigarh
Dr YK Chawla, presently head of the Hepatology Department, is being appointed Director of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER).

IA & AS officer Rakesh transferred
Rakesh, Deputy Accountant General (IC-II), in the office of the Principal Accountant General (C&CA), Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, on relief from his duties by H T Fulpadia, is transferred and posted as Deputy Accountant General (Admn/GE/Pens) in the office of the Accountant General (A&E)-II, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, against an existing vacancy.

Pakistan : Backdoor entry at Dy Secretary level?
Pakistan's federal government has quietly issued a notification for direct entry into pay grade 19 (Dy Secretary level) in the Office Management Group (OMG) which is the Pakistani counterpart of India's Central Secretariat Service. The rationale for the decision given in a two and half page notification issued by CP-II wing of the establishment division is that it would improve federal governance, result in better services delivery and enable professionals to join the OMG at a fairly senior level. OMG officers are however upset over the decision as it would adversely affect their promotion prospects. There are 600 OMG officers in grade 18 of whom 300 were expecting to pick up the next grade but with the new scheme in place their slots might go to the direct entrants. These officers also accuse that the real objective of the ruling politicians is to induct their own men without letting them face the normal competitive channels.

Two new Information Commissioners in J & K
Dr Sudesh Kumar Sharma and Nazir Ahmed have been appointed as Information Commissioners of the State Information Commission in J & K.

Subodh Agrawal posted as Member, Revenue Board (UPDATED)
Subodh Agrawal has been posted as Member of Revenue Board, Ajmer, Rajasthan. He is 1988 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre.

Mehra given addl charge of MD, RAJFED (UPDATED)
Prem Singh Mehra, Registrar, Cooperative Department, has been given additional charge of Managing Director of Rajasthan State Co operative Marketing Federation Ltd (RAJFED), Jaipur. He is 1987 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre.

Cow dung sold like hot cakes in Delhi (UPDATED)
The cow is to a holy animal for Hindus. During Dussehra the cow dung was so much in demand that it was sold for Rs 20/- per kilogram in Delhi. Interestingly, people didn't mind to queue up to get it and offer prayers to the God.

Seven Assistant Commissioners of Income Tax promoted (Updated)
As many as Seven Assistant Commissioners of Income Tax have been promoted as Deputy Commissioners of Income Tax. They are GR Ogania, Udaye Bhaskar jakee, Rajnish Yadav, Shital Dholakia, Puneet Kumar, RM Bijawan and V Rama Mohan.

Tarun Seem posted as OSD to CCIT (CCA), Delhi region (Updated)
Tarun Seem, Additional CIT, has been on return from deputation from Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi, posted as OSD to CCIT (CCA), Delhi region.

Debjyoti Das posted as OSD to CCIT (CCA), Delhi region (Updated)
Debjyoti Das, Additional CIT, has been on return from deputation from Mnistry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSP), posted as OSD to CCIT (CCA), Delhi region.

(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

Makarand Nene is new IOC's Director, (Marketing).
Makarand Nene has joined as Director, Marketing in the Indian Oil Corporation. He was earlier an ED.
( We said this on May 16 )

Tata Motors partners with the ace fashion designer, Rajesh Pratap Singh for Tata Manza
Tata Motors has associated with the world-renowned fashion designer, Rajesh Pratap for Tata Manza. Pratap will partner with Tata Motors' styling team which operates from its state-of-the-art styling studio, at the Pune facility. He will be helping the team to further enhance the design and stylise the interiors and exteriors of the Tata Manza. Currently based in New Delhi, Pratap belongs to Rajasthan and subsequent to his graduation from NIFT Delhi he worked in the Fashion Industry for two years in India and Italy before introducing his own line of men's and women's clothing in 1997.

Krishna Motukuri appointed MD, E-Commerce at ibibo Group
Ibibo Group has appointed Krishna Motukuri as Managing Director of its e-commerce businesses. He was Associate Director at Amazon for the past seven years where he looked after various divisions including search, co-op marketing, global expansion and supply chain.

Skandraaj appointed GM, Marketing at Dinamalar
K R Skandraaj, has been appointed as General Manager, Marketing for Tamil daily Dinamalar. Prior to this he was the COO of Sovereign Media Marketing (SMM) - a marketing division of Malar Publications.

Sivagurunathan appointed as Whole-time Director & CEO, Sicagen India Ltd
Sicagen India Limited has appointed R. Sivagurunathan as Whole-time Director of the company designated, as, Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect.

Rajagopalan resigns as Director, Sicagen India Ltd
K. K. Rajagopalan has resigned as Director of Sicagen India Ltd with immediate effect.

Arumugam resigns as MD, Sicagen India Ltd
S. Arumugam has resigned as Managing Director of Sicagen India Ltd w.e.f October 6, 2011..

Bansal resigns as Director, Sicagen India Ltd
Mohinder Pal Bansal has resigned as Director of Sicagen India Ltd w.e.f. October 4, 2011.

Rai resigns as Director, Navneet Publications India Ltd
Vijay Rai has resigned as Director of Navneet Publications India Ltd w.e.f. October 4, 2011.

Srivastava appointed Director, Hathway Cable & Datacom Ltd
Hathway Cable & Datacom Limited has appointed Hursh Shrivastava as a Director w.e.f. October 4, 2011.

Ravan's ten heads?

The ten heads include; the part of the body plus kaam(desires), krodh(anger), mad(hubris), moh(attachment), lobh(greed),chhal (dissimulation), bal(armed force)and kaushal(skill). All of us bear one or more of these heads. Depending on our mindsets (vratti), we turn good or bad. Those controlled by aasuri vratti (demonic mindset) act like Ravan whereas those given to sur vratti (godly mindset) follow Ram. Our Tihari Club bears proof of it. Festivals like the Dushera only emphasise the value of good behaviour. Recourse to bad behaviour brings about all round destruction in the family and society. Since the enzymes are naturally present in the DNA of all of us for both the types of vrattis or mindsets, it is left to us to allow either of them to fructify. Since history and other empirical evidence establishes a preference for the good mindset, such festivals instill in the children a deep love for good behaviour. Ultimately, everything depends on the mindset and attitude. Comprehend the mindset of the terrorists in this context: they have been made to believe that terror activities are good and an insurance for admission into heaven! The fall of Ravan was also because of such a mindset about everything and everyone, otherwise he was a renowned scholar and warrior ! The call for research given by Prof Thorat of ICSSR and academic excellence by NRN Murthy might encourage Behaviour Scientists to look at the burning of the effigies on Dushera from that point of view, totally removed from religion. May be it helps curb corruption in the country. Without self regulation, no policing or CVC or CBI can do much, excepting generating exaggerated news stories for content starved 24x7 channels out to make a killing of the soup of law which can not be made into fish again!

Recently the Supreme Court and Punjab and Haryana High Court has given a judgement that there should no reservation in Promotions. Further the P & H High Court has quashed the OM's of DOPT relating to Reservation to Promotions. Now what is the fate of various OM's of DOPT relating to Reservation in Promotions. Whether the OM's are still applicable.

Aman

Another perfidy of Chidambaram

Here is another instance of the double face of P. Chidambaram. On September 9, 2010 he grandly announced at a press conference a cabinet decision to conduct a stand-alone caste census by the census commissioner of India in June 2011 after the general census was over in February 2011.It turned out to be his double-faced trick to dupe the people of India and get the census completed without collecting the caste data as assured in Parliament by the Prime Minister and Pranab Mukerji the chairman of the Group of Ministers on caste census. After seeing off the general census in Feb-March 2011,Chidambaram gets a fresh decision taken by the cabinet to foist the caste data collection on the unwilling state governments through the BPL survey during July-December 2011.Chidambaram hid himself after this foolish cabinet decision and left it to be announced by a hapless Ambika Soni acting as the spokesman of the cabinet and cutting a sorry figure. Now the BPL survey 2011 is cutting a sorry figure all over the country under the grandiloquent and pompous name of "Socio-economic and caste census 2011".And Chidambaram has contributed another shame to the UPA government.

S P Mishra

Regularisation of ad-hoc service from the date of initial appointment

This is a case in the Government of the officials who after qualifying the Departmental Competitive Examination conducted by Staff Selection Commission for Stenographers Grade 'D' were appointed on regular basis between 1981-90 and had been promoted as Stenographers Grade 'C' on ad-hoc basis after putting in more than 13 years of regular service and again had to wait for regularisation of service for more than 10 years and thereby lost most of the service in the service career because of regularisation of service. It may be stated, in this connection, that this ration has become more widen when it is compared with the ration of UDC in the sister service of Central Secretariat Clerk Service. Government may kindly take a sympathetic view and take remedial action by regularising the ad-hoc service of the officials who have rendered more than 3 years uninterrupted service.

V P Sharma

Plan Panel is now irrelevant ?

I agree with A K Saxena that the case of continuing with the Planning Commission, needs to be reviewed. These arm chair academicians have made a mockery of India's economy that has taken a down turn.

P V Kurup

Maya and Ramdev

Duvidha mein dono gaye,

Maya Mili na Ram.

In the western democracies the State and the Church have been separated long ago. Here we are combining these both. It seems that our political and spiritual systems are both weak. Looking for help from each other. Can't they work independently. Involvement of Gurus in the Anna's Movement was not in good taste. Harmful for both. Let us take note of it.

Jai Hind.

Z S Nirwal

Congratulations

My heartiest congratulations to Justice Mishra on his elevation to Hon. Supreme Court. I wish him the best in his new assignment. I had the privilege of meeting him in connection with certain pending cases of acquired properties by I T Department. He promptly ordered the cases to be listed for hearing. Matters are in progress now due to the initiative taken by him. Regards.

R Bharadwaj

Maintenance by CPWD

Information pertaining to budget works/additions/alterations in type IV houses in a colony maintained by CPWD was sought. The CIC directed to provide full and complete information pertaining to works as sought
by the appellant including the name of the agency, budget and payments made along with details of the approving authority and inspecting authority. The CIC observed that as per present practice, the allottees are not kept informed of the nature or level of services to which the allottee is entitled nor is he informed of the timeframe in which the services will be delivered. Consequently, huge sums from the government budget are released in favour of private contractors who are allotted these works with almost no supervision since it is almost impossible for the meager staff/ officers of the CPWD to supervise hundreds of flats/houses in their area of jurisdiction. Under the powers given u/s 25 (5), the CIC recommended to Director General CPWD
to make the terms and conditions of the contract transparent so that the allottee can share the responsibility of supervising the work of the contractor. This would enable the most efficient execution of the awarded job and to receive maximum returns on expenditure made from public funds.

Comments

All public servants staying in government accommodation have faced the poor maintenance by the CPWD. As the end user (allottee) is not provided with any information regarding his entitlement of the various
services, he is unable to assist the CPWD officers in supervising the works being carried out in his allotted accommodation. Hopefully in the RTI era, the uniformity in the standard of services would lead to
an improvement in the quality and the allottees would not be left to the mercy of the contractors.

Shri Radhe Shyam Goel v. CPWD in CIC/DS/A/2011/000480

- 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)