What people say about us!

Great Job - The entire World is updated on Who is Who in India - Har Pal Har Din. Congrats.

Amarendra Kumar, London (UK)

Is Coal India in trouble?
The Coal India may incur a loss of Rs 3,000 crore if it implements coal pool pricing mechanism. Can an IAS officer (Ex or serving) S Narsingh Rao who is presently CMD of the CIL answer to this question ? Now the CIL is trying to involve Power Ministry in this matter.

Is it BJP strategy to be low key till Gujarat elections?
It is heard that the trio - Narendra Modi, Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitely who are close to each other have decided to be quiet or give a weak reply on any issue of national importance till such time Gujarat elections are over. Much of this has got to do with Modi being the center of the attention of media and the public. Recently it has shown a limp defence on crucial issues like Coalgate and just a murmur in the FDI issue, let alone a thought on no confidence motion which is being mulled by Mamta Bannerjee.

Will Modi succeed in provoking Sonia this time?
The Rajkot rally which is on Wednesday will be a crucial one for Sonia Gandhi and Congress party in the Gujarat elections. The Congress strategy this time is to focus on local issues. Narendra Modi knows that Congress hates him with passion and he wants to use that to this advantage by bringing in issues that will make Sonia and Rahul react. Political observers say he is waving a red flag to the Congress Bull. Will Namo succeed this time ? Will the combative Sonia again come with reactions like `maut ka saudagar' needs to be seen?

BUREAUCRACY

Will SEBI, Chief go?
Will the SEBI Chief U K Sinha go before the end of this year ? One can only wait and watch to get the answer to this question.

Deputy RBI, Governor to get one year extension
Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Anand Sinha is expected to get one year extension in his tenure in February.

Vivek Rae to be Secretary, MSME?
DG, Acquisition in the Ministry of Defence, Vivek Rae may move as Secretary, MSME in the Government of India. He is a 1978 batch IAS officer of UT cadre. The post was earlier held by R K Mathur who has taken over as Secretary, Defence Production.

Is PC upset?
If North Block sources are to be believed, Finance Minister P Chidambaram was quite upset when he could not get any of his favourite candidates cleared for the post of Executive Director for India at the International Monetary Fund, Washington DC,

IPS entry in RPF barred ?

Mystery shrouds the debarment of IPS officers in the Railway Protection Force (RPF). The MHA has failed to appoint one IPS officer as ADG and four IPS officers as IG in the RPF.

Ms Panse assumes charge as CMD, Allahabad Bank
Ms Shubhalakshmi Panse has taken over as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Allahabad Bank. Earlier, she was an Executive Director (ED) with the Vijaya Bank, Bangalore. Ms Panse, who had assumed the charge in late evening of October 1, 2012, reached Allahabad Bank's Kolkata headquarter on October 3, 2012, to don the mantle of the office. Ms Panse has had over 33 years of banking experience. She has specialization in Corporate Credit Appraisal, Credit monitoring and NPA management; expertise in project appraisal, monitoring & implementation; planning, strategizing & implementing business plans; establishing and putting in place systems and procedures for new business outlets and running them effectively and efficiently; Strong domain knowledge for Conceptualizing & Planning the road map of Information Technology initiatives. Ms Panse, who was born in January 28, 1954, has educational qualification with degrees M.Sc., DBM, MMS, MBA, CA IIB, Diploma in Business Management.
(We said this earlier and on January 18, 2012)

Nirmal Verma is ahead?
Outgoing Chief of Indian Navy Nirmal Verma is ahead in the race for High Commissioner in Canada. IFS officer Basant Gupta is said to be number two now.

Prasar Bharti revenue goes up
Prasar Bharti Revenues are now looking up, as evident in recent Olympics, DD's Sunday Morning shows, etc. Jawahar Sircar is the CEO of the Prasar Bharti.

1997 batch IAS get super-time scale
Chhattisgarh is the second state after Tripura in the country having given super-time scale to a 1997 batch IAS officers.

Orders of Anita Kapoor this week?
Official orders of the appointment of Ms Anita Kapoor as Member of the CBDT are expected to be issued this week.

Delhi Golf Club election dominated by bureaucrats
V S Juneja IRS (IT) a 1965 batch was elected President of the Delhi Golf Club defeating Rajesh Dhingra IRS ( C &CE ) a 1974 batch in a closely contested election. R Rathore of the Indian Foreign Service was 3rd.Kapil Channa from Private Sector was elected Captain of the Club.

Sharad Kumar is likely to grab the top slot as new DGP of Haryana?
If a highly placed source is to be believed, it is a 1979 batch IPS officer Sharad Kumar who would succeed R S Dalal as the new DGP of Haryana. Dalal is retiring on October 31.

MP cadre IFS officer to proceed on central deputation
As the grapevine has it, Shashi Malik , a 1993 batch IFS officer of MP cadre, would proceed on central deputation soon.

MHA didn't review Spolia's posting in Arunachal as CS?
Whispers in the corridors of power are that MHA has finally declined to review the matter of D M Spolia who had recently been posted him as Chief Secretary of Arunachal Pradesh. Delhi CM was unwilling to relieve him. Delhi Government, now, is learnt to have issued him with the orders. Spolia, Principal Secretary, Finance, Government of Delhi, is a 1979 batch IAS officer of UT cadre.

West Bengal Chief Secretary supersedes 9 IAS officers
A 1982 batch West Bengal Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra has superseded at least nine IAS officers. They are A K Chanda (1976), A B Chakraborty (1977), Ms Jaya Dasgupta (1978), Dipankar Mukhopadhyay (1979), N R Banerjee (1981), Mrs TukTuk Kumar (1981), K Sathiavasan (1981), Subesh Das (1982) and Nurul Haque (1982).

Mohanty is back from Geneva
P K Mohanty, a 1982 batch of Customs Services has joined as Commissioner Customs, Vizag after returning from the posting as Minister Customs at the Indian mission to WTO, Geneva.

Meena or Subhash Joshi to be new DG, CRPF
High powered committee is believed to have, on Monday, recommended two names of a 1976 batch IPS officers Harish Chandra Meena and Subhash Joshi for the post of DG CRPF. Now the PM will take final decision.

Pankaj Jain Secretary, Drinking Water gets additional charge of Land Resources
Pankaj Jain who is new Secretary, Drinking Water has been given additional charge of Land Resources in the Government of India. He is a 1978 batch IAS officer of J & K cadre.
(We said this on September 19, 2012)

Empanelment of 1993 batch IPS officers as IG in GoI delayed
A meeting scheduled to be held on October 1, 2012, for the empanelment of 1993 batch IPS officers as Inspector General (IG) in the Government of India has been postponed until next date.

Pranay Sahay is also DG, CRPF
Pranay Sahay, DG, Sashastra Seema Bal, (SSB), has been assigned an additional charge of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) until new appointment against this post. Sahay is a 1975 batch IPS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre.

DPC clears names of JS, Lok Sabha
DPC is reported to have cleared the name of R K Jain, A K Tewari, Ashok Kumar, Hardev Singh and R S Kambo for the post of Joint Secretary in the Lok Sabha ,Secretariat.

Bureaucratic reshuffle on the anvil in West Bengal
As the grapevine has it there is going to be a reshuffle in West Bengal in the wake of Sanjay Mitra having assumed charge as the new Chief Secretary. He is a 1982 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre.

P S Karthigeyan gets extension in Male
First Secretary in Male, P S Karthigeyan, has been granted extension till December this year.

A P Srivastava to attend Mid-Career Training
Ajeet Prakash Srivastava, Principal Secretary, Commercial Tax Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh, is going to USA for attending Mid Career Training Programme Phase V 2012 for one-and-a-half months. He is a 1984 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre.

Subhash Sharma to attend Mid-Career Training
Subhash Sharma, Joint Secretary and Secretary BRDB, Department of Defence, Government of India, is going to USA for attending Mid Career Training Programme Phase V 2012 for one-and-a-half months. He is a 1984 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre.

Ms Vijya Srivastava to attend Mid-Career Training
Ms Vijaya Srivastava, Joint Secretary, RD, is going to USA for attending Mid Career Training Programme Phase V 2012 for one-and-a-half months. He is a 1984 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre.

Alok Srivastava to attend Mid-Career Training
Alok Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Government of India, is going to USA for attending Mid Career Training Programme Phase V 2012 for one-and-a-half months. He is a 1984 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre.

Ashok Kumar to attend Mid-Career Training
Ashok Kumar, Principal Secretary, Department of Revenue, Government of Uttar Pradesh, is going to USA for attending Mid Career Training Programme Phase V 2012 for one-and-a-half months. He is a 1984 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.

Binoy Kumar to attend Mid-Career Training
Binoy Kumar, Principal Secretary to Chief minister, Government of Andhra Pradesh, is going to USA for attending Mid Career Training Programme Phase V 2012 for one-and-a-half months. He is a 1983 batch IAS officer of Andhra
Pradesh cadre.

Rajiv Kumar to attend Mid-Career Training
Rajiv Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, is going to USA for attending Mid Career Training Programme Phase V 2012 for one-and-a-half months. He is a 1984 batch IAS officer of JH cadre.

Bhalla to attend Mid-Career Training
Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Joint Secretary, Department of Coal, Government of India, is going to USA for attending Mid Career Training Programme Phase V 2012 for one-and-a-half months. He is A-M cadre IAS officer
of 1984 batch.

Ms Kapoor to attend Mid-Career Training
Ms Shanthini Kapoor, Principal Secretary, Social Reforms Department, Government of Tamilnadu, is going to USA for attending Mid Career Training Programme Phase V 2012 for one-and-a-half months. He is a 1983 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.

Japan to hold course on Natural Disasters from Jan 6
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has invited applications for A group training course in 'pre-recovery planning from natural disasters' being held in Japan from January 6, 2013 to March 2, 2013.

Two Customs Commissioners shifted
Two officers of Indian Revenue Service-Customs (IRS-Customs), working as Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise have been shifted at different places. Accordingly, B B Mohapatra has been posted as Commissioner, Guwahati CX while Ms Renu K Jagdev is being appointed as ADG (HRM), Delhi.

14 Joint/Addl Commissioners of Customs transferred
As many as 14 officers of Indian Revenue Service-Customs (IRS-Customs) working as Joint/Additional Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise have been transferred and posted at different places. Accordingly, V Sivasubramaniam has been transferred as OSD (Admn) ,DGICCE, CBEC while Ms Meenu S Kumar is being shifted to DG (HRD), New Delhi and C Sonagate was moved to Shillong CX. Similarly, C P Goyal has been shifted to Delhi Customs; Istikhar Baig to CESTAT, New Delhi; Pankaj Dwivedi to Vadodara CX (at Daman CX); Sanjay Rathi to Hyderabad CX; Sunil Jain to Mumbai CX-II; T K Samant to Mumbai CX-I; Manish Kumar to Directorate of Legal Affairs, Delhi; Ranjit Kumar to Delhi CX; R Guru Nathan to CESTAT, Bangalore; P Roychowdhury to Ahmedabad Customs and Lallan Kumar has been shifted to NACEN, Faridabad.

19 CCsIT get additional charges
As many as 19 officers of Indian Revenue Service-Income Tax (IRS-IT) working to the grade of Chief Commissioners of Income Tax (CCsIT) have been assigned additional charges. Accordingly, R K Roye has been assigned additional charge of CCIT, Nasik; S S Kanan of CCIT-II, Chennai; Anita Kapur of DGIT (Intl Tax.), Delhi; Surbhi Sinha of DGIT (System), Delhi; Kulwinder Singh of CCIT-XIII, Delhi; S G Joshi of DGIT (NADT), Nagpur; Anita Kapur of DG (HRD), Delhi; N P Singh of CCIT-XI, Mumbai; S S Kanan of CCIT, Trivandrum; U K Shukla of CCIT-XII, Mumbai; Deepa Krishan of CCIT-IX, Delhi; K K Mohapatra of CCIT, Durgapur; G N Pandey of CCIT, Ghaziabad; S S Kanan of CCIT, Coimbatore; Dilip Shivpuri of CCIT-IV, Ahmedabad; Arun Kumar Singh of DGIT (Inv.), Chandigarh; S S Kanan of CCIT, Trichy; Raminder Kaushal of DGIT (Exemp.), Delhi and Deepa Krishan was given an additional charge of DGIT (L&R), Delhi.

NBCC pays dividend to government for FY 2011-12 (UPDATED)
Kamal Nath, Union Minister for Urban Development, was handed over a dividend cheque of Rs.37.80 crore by Vishnu P Das, CMD, National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCC), towards 90% of the equity share capital held by the Government in the Company. The dividend cheque was handed over to the Minister at a small function held on October 1, 2012, in presence of Dr Sudhir Krishna, Secretary, Urban Development, D Diptivilasa, Additional Secretary of this department, Anoop K Mittal, Director (Projects), NBCC and other senior officers of MoUD & NBCC.

Ajit M Sharan is Member Secretary, Women Commission (UPDATED)
Ajit M Sharan has been appointed as Member Secretary, National Commission for Women under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, in the rack and pay of Additional Secretary. He is a 1979 batch IAS officer of Haryana cadre.
(We said this on September 25, 2012)


Rajiv Mehrishi is Secretary, MOIA, MSME (UPDATED)
Rajiv Mehrishi, Special Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture has been appointed as Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA). He has also been assigned an additional charge of Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). He is a 1978 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre.
(We said this on September 28, 2012)

T S Randhawa repatriated to parent cadre (UPDATED)
T S Randhawa has been repatriated to his parent cadre. He is a 1979 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre.

Orders of Justice Harkauli issued (UPDATED)
The orders of Acting Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice, Sushil Harkauli for the appointment of a Judge, Allahabad High Court have been issued.
(We said this on September 7, 2012)

DEBATE
Is FDI in retail in the interests of economic independence of India? Mail your views to Mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com or Suresh.mehrotra@yahoo. com.

CORPORATE

Suresh Babu is new CGM, SBH
V Suresh Babu has taken over as Chief General Manager at the State Bank of Hyderabad.

Rastogi ceases to be Director (HR), Engineers India Ltd
P K Rastogi has ceased to be Director (HR), Engineers India Ltd.

Swarup appointed Director (HR), Engineers India Ltd
Ms Veena Swarup, General Manager, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) has been appointed as Director (HR) of Engineers India Ltd.

Malhotra quits Cyber Media India Ltd
Shyam Malhotra has resigned as Executive Director of Cyber Media India Ltd. However, he will continue as Chief Mentor and Coach.

Ganguly ceases to be Company Secy., Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Ltd
Amitav Ganguly has ceased to be Company Secretary of Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Ltd.

Singh quits Lakshmi Overseas Industries Ltd
Harwant Singh has resigned as Director of Lakshmi Overseas Industries Ltd.

Mehta ceases to be CMD, Varun Shipping Company Ltd
Arun Mehta has ceased to be Chairman and Managing Director of Varun Shipping Company Ltd.

Mathur appointed Part-time Director, Container Corporation of India Ltd
Container Corporation of India Ltd has appointed Sudhir Mathur, Ex-Director (Finance), IRCON International Ltd as Non-official Part-time Director on the Board of Directors of the company with immediate effect.

Kumar quits First Leasing Company of India Ltd
N Kumar has resigned as Company Secretary of First Leasing Company of India Ltd.

Sheetal R appointed Company Secy., First Leasing Company of India Ltd
Ms Sheetal R. has been appointed as Company Secretary of First Leasing Company of India Ltd.

Gogte appointed CFO, Automotive Stampings and Assemblies Ltd
Shridhar Gogte has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of Automotive Stampings and Assemblies Ltd.

(The views expressed in this column are of the contributors. We do not owe any responsibility, whatsoever, of the views of our surfers as they are their personal opinion. However, we would also request our contributors not to be personal, directly or indirectly, in presenting their views. Instead of countering the views which ‘X’ has already expressed, our contributors are advised to present their own views. Also be brief, say about 200 words at the most since any views longer than that if eliminated at our end would carry the risk of the contrbutor’s item losing its original essence)

Early decision required

Decisions about appointment of Chairmen of banks should be taken well before the present incumbent retires which is well known in advance.

Ramakant Mishra

Best of Luck

I know Gaurav right from my CSE preparation days in Delhi and he was the brightest and we knew for sure that he would go very far. Kudos - Gaurav.

Mukesh Jain, IRAS

Lip Service to Hindi language must stop !

Plethora of hindi institutes, sansthan, bureau need to be revisited .The Parliamentary Committees need to be scrapped as they have failed to improve the status of Hindi over several decades. The committee officers are interested only in collecting costly gifts from PSUs, banks and ministries. The ATM ministries are expected to be extra generous. Excursion trips abroad are organised to celebrate Hindi Saptah. Hundreds of crores of INRs are wasted, year after year, out of public exchequer while the language continues to languish. This is a scam that merits to be investigated by the CBI.

A K Saxena ( A retired civil servant)

RIT

Can CAT direct All India Radio to grant a promotion to the RTI appellant?

The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). He wanted to know if CAT could direct the All India Radio (AIR) to give him promotion under some statutory amendment of a certain recruitment rule. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed the appellant that he could make an application to the CAT under its rules for the redressal of his grievance if the matter fell within its jurisdiction. The First Appellate Authority (FAA) also denied the information observing that it was not the duty of the PIO to respond to hypothetical questions nor could he offer any interpretation. During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant argued that that he was entitled to get the advice of the PIO since the definition of information given in section 2(f) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act included opinion and advice. The Commission held that under the RTI Act, the citizen cannot seek the opinion or advice of the PIO on any matter unless such opinion or advice already exists with the public authority. The Commission rejected the appeal stating that the PIO had very rightly referred the appellant to the relevant rules under which he could always approach the CAT for redressing his grievance.

Comments

The term 'opinion and advice' appearing in section 2(f) refer to any such opinion or advice which the public authority might have obtained and which form part of the records. It does not refer to any opinion or advices which are not in existence. The Section 2(f) of RTI act does not permit seeking 'opinion and advice' of PIO as a consultant of the applicant.

Citation: Mr. Deba Prasad Dutt v. Central Administrative Tribunal in File No.CIC/SM/A/2011/001923

Weekly article by Dr. (Mrs.) Anuradha Verma
(dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in), RTI Consultant to IIM, Indore and Co-author of the books: RIGHT TO INFORMATION - LAW AND PRACTICE and PIO's Guide to RTI by Taxmann. (The views are Personal)