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R Rajgopal

Major decisions in Railway Ministry unlikely now
As the grapevine has it there is a very remote possibility of any major decision by CP Joshi as the Minister for Railways.

Sudheendra Kulkarni pens a book on Gandhi
Sudheendra Kulkarni launched a book on Mahatma Gandhi titled Music of the Spinning Wheel. Mahatma Gandhi's manifesto for the internet age. The book launch saw Nitin Gadkari, ex Chief Justice CS Dharmadhikari, Mukesh Ambani, S Goplakrishnan, and Prasoon Joshi.

BUREAUCRACY

Rakesh Mohan to be ED of IMF?
Vice Chairperson of Indian Institute for Human Settlements and Former Deputy Governor of the RBI, Rakesh Mohan is being tipped to be Executive Director for India at the International Monetary Fund, Washington DC.
(We said this on September 24, 2012)

Orders of Vivek Rae issued
Vivek Rae is moving to the Department of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises in the Government of India as Secretary . A1978 batch UT cadre IAS officer Rae is presently, DG Acquisition in the Ministry of Defence.
(We said this on October 3, 2012)

Vigilance clearance of IAS officers belonging to 1983 batch sought
As the grapevine has it, vigilance clearance of IAS officers belonging to 1983 batch for empanelment as Additional Secretaries in the Government of India (GoI) has been sought.

Sarvepalli Srinivas selected as MD, NHDC
Sarvepalli Srinivas, Exim Bank, has been selected as Managing Director, National Handloom Development Corporation Limited (NHDC) at a Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) meeting held on October 4, 2012. As many as 14 persons were interviewed for the same.

Why a Secretary in GoI gets hyper?
Why a Secretary in the Government of India (GoI) gets hyper? This question is hot topic of discussion in corridors of power.

1982 batch IAS officer to report 1985 batch IAS officer
CMD Air India Rohit Nandan who is 1982 batch IAS officer will now report to 1985 batch IAS officer Prabhat Kumar who has joined as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Who is behind a tirade against SEBI Chief?
Who is behind a tirade against SEBI Chief U K Sinha? This question is a hot topic of discussion in corridors of power as well as the Corporate world.

B Ravindranath poised to get Bajalia's charge in IDBI Bank Limited
B Ravindranath, an Executive Director(ED) in IDBI Bank Limited is poised to get the charge that so far was being held by T R Bajalia. The latter has now become Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of SIDBI.

D P Bankhwal's proposal for IG, NTCA order issued
Order relating to appointment D P Bankhwal on central deputation as IG, in the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) have been issued. He is an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer of 1985 batch who belongs to the Assam-Meghalaya (A-M) cadre.
(We said this on June 18, 2012)

15 contenders in fray for NBCC's top slot
As many as 15 contenders are in fray for new Chairman cum Managing (CMD) of NBCC interviews for which will be held on November 1,2012.

GoM to clear Coal Regulator Bill this month?
Coal Regulator Bill is likely to be cleared at the Group of Minister (GoM) meeting in October.

17 IRTS officers to get HAG
As many as 17 IRTS officers belonging to 1981 batch are likely to get elevated to Higher Administrative Grade (HAG).

Picture gets clearer; who would be the next CS, Delhi?
Weeks after D M Spolia's posting as CS of Arunachal Pradesh, appointment of Vivek Rae as new Secretary, MSME sparks off a new buzz in power-corridors. The buzz suggests that the race for Delhi top slot shows 'elimination pattern' and the shrinking sample-size of the contenders would finally zero down on none other than Shakti Sinha? Rae is 1978 batch IAS officer; Sinha and Spolia are 1979 batch IAS officers. P K Tripathy, CS, Delhi, a 1977 batch IAS officer is retiring in December this year. All four officers belong to AGMUT cadre.

R S Shukla is likely to move from Dept. of Health & Family Welfare?
As the grapevine has it, Joint Secretary and CVO, Department of Health and Family Welfare, R S Shukla is likely to move on another assignment. Rumour mills have started doing rounds as to which department he will proceed. Shukla is a 1986 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre.

AYUSH looks for suitable IFS officer for vacant Director level post?
The department of Ayush, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has one post vacant in the rank of Director; which is likely to be filled up soon. Search is going on for a suitable Indian Forest Service officer.

B P Jain promoted as CCIT
Indian Revenue Service-Income Tax (IRS-IT) officer, B P Jain presently working as Commissioner of Income Tax, has been promoted to the grade of Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (CCIT).

Ms Neelam Meena may return to West Bengal
As the grapevine has it, Ms Neelam Meena who on central deputation so far was Private Secretary (PS) to Minister of State for Rural Development Sisir Adhikari (of the Trinamool Congress) is going to return to West Bengal. She is a 1998 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre.

Dr VK Bahuguna elected as Vice -Chair of the Asia-Pacific network
Dr V K Bahuguna , Director General (DG), ICFRE was unanimously elected as Vice -Chair of the Asia-Pacific net work of Forestry Research Institutions. The ICFRE had attained greater heights and international recognitions under his leadership. Dr Bahuguna is a 1979 batch Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer of Tripura cadre.

Will K L Bairwa be next DGP of Rajasthan?
Whispers in the power corridors are that Kanhaiya Lal Bairwa, DGP, Home Guards, may be given the command of Rajasthan police as the successor of DGP Meena. Bairwa is a 1977 batch IPS officer.

Basir Ahmed to join in Medan
Dr Basir Ahmed CG is joining at Medan in place of R Sukumaran who has retired.

Kumar completes Ph D
C B Kumar has successfully completed his PhD from UK and has reported back on duty after availing study leave. The title of his thesis is 'Hydrological politics in megacities-rethinking water governance in Delhi'. He is a 1995 batch IAS officer of AGMU cadre.

7 CsIT/DsIT transferred
As many as seven officers of Indian Revenue Service-Income Tax (IRS-IT) working in the grade of Commissioner/Director of Income Tax have been transferred and posted at different places. Accordingly, D R Sindhal has been shifted to Ahmedabad while D P Haokip is being transferred to Guwahati and B K Singh was posted to Jamshedpur. Similarly, Naveen Chandra has been shifted to Kolkata; Suchismita Palai to Kolkata; Ravjit Singh Arneja to Nagpur; Anuradha Modkerjee to Patna.

19 CsIT/DsIT locally transferred
As many as 19 officers of Indian Revenue Service-Income Tax (IRS-IT) working in the grade of Commissioner/Director of Income Tax have locally been transferred. Accordingly, Nathu Singh Dayam has been shifted as CIT-3, Ahmedabad while Sandeep Kapoor was moved to CIT (A)-3, Ahmedabad and K Sridhar is being posted as CIT (A)-6, Ahmedabad. Similarly, Feroz Khan has been posted as CIT (ITAT)-7, Delhi; Jayant Diddi as CIT (A)-32, Delhi; Suniti Srivastava as DIT (O&M), Delhi; Dr Uppuleti Venkateswara Rao as CIT-6, Hyderabad; Atul Pranay as CIT (A)-1, Hyderabad; K Gnana Prakash as CIT (Audit), Hyderabad; Vasundhara Sinha as CIT (A)-4, Hyderabad; Venkat T Reddy as CIT (A)-6, Hyderabad; M Ravindra Sai as CIT (ITAT)-1, Hyderabad; Kavita Jha as CIT-2, Kolkata; Kumar Sanjay as DIT (Inv), Patna; Prakash Chandra as CIT (C), Pune; V Anandarajan as CIT (A) Central, Pune; T H Lucas Peter as CIT (A), Vishakhapatnam, Kandlakuntavenkat Narsimha Charya has been posted as CIT (ITAT), Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad.

Team of Election Commission to visit Himachal Pradesh on Oct 7
Chief Election Commissioner, V S Sampath along with the Election Commissioners, H S Brahma and Dr Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi will be visiting poll-bound Himachal Pradesh state on October 7, 2012. The team of Commission will take the stock of election preparations in the state where votes will be cast on November 4, 2012.

Lt Gen Hooda takes over charge
Lt Gen DS Hooda has taken over as General Officer Commanding of the White Knight Corps.

Dr P G Dhar Chakraborty is also Secretary, NDMA, MHA (UPDATED)
Dr P G Dhar Chakraborty, Adviser, Inter-State Council Secretariat, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has been assigned an additional charge of Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Ministry of Home Affairs at the level of Additional Secretary for a period of three months. He is a 1980 batch IAS officer of Jammu and Kashmir.

Wadhawan joins as JS in DEA (UPDATED)
Anup Wadhawan has finally joined as new Joint Secretary, Capital Market, in the Ministry of Finance. He is 1985 batch IAS officer of Uttarakhand cadre.
( We said this on August 20 )

Office of CBDT to remain opened on Sunday (UPDATED)
Union Finance Minister, P Chidambaram will review the progress of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on October 8, 2012. As a result of this, the office of CBDT will remain on (Sunday) October 7, 2012.

CVO IOC S K Singh to continue till 2014 (UPDATED)
CVO Indian Oil Corporation S K Singh is going to continue on the post till 2014. He is 1983 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre.

8 Railway GMs get additional charges (UPDATED)
As many as eight General Managers of various Railway Zones have been assigned additional charges of General Managers of other Zones for the time being. Accordingly, S V Arya, GM, WCR, has been given an additional charge of GM/SECR while A K Verma, GM, SER, gets an additional charge of GM/NFR and Jagdev Kalia, GM, CORE, was given an additional charge of NCR. Similarly, BN Rajsekhar, GM, RCF, has been assigned an additional charge of GM/NWR; G N Asthana, GM, SCR, gets charge of GM, SWR; S K Jain, GM, CR of GM,WR; Abhay Kumar Khanna, GM, ICF of GM, SR and B P Khare, GM, DLW, was assigned an additional charge of GM,CLW.

15 IRS-IT officers made Exp. Observers for HP polls (UPDATED)
As many as 15 officers of Indian Revenue Service-Income Tax (IRS-IT) working in various places in the country have been appointed as Expenditure Observers for the Assembly Elections of Himachal Pradesh. The officers include: Somanath S Ukkali,Palanivel Rajan V, Pradeep Kumar PV, Manoj Kumar G, Mantri SS, Abhay Kumar, Kumar Ajeet, Narendar Rebelly from Bangalore while Shramdeep Sinha, Ram Kumar from Bhopal; Sumer Singh, Roy Jose V from Chennai; N jungio from Guwahati, Eyas Ahamed M from Kochi; Anupam Kant from Kanpur.

Ms Shefali Juneja deputed as Director, Civil Aviation (UPDATED)
Indian Revenue Service-Income Tax (IRS-IT) officer, Ms Shefali Juneja working as Addl. CIT, Delhi, has been deputed as Director in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, New Delhi for a period of five years.

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

Raghavan quits Kingfisher Airlines Ltd
Bharath Raghavan has resigned as Company Secretary of Kingfisher Airlines Ltd .

Rao elevated in ONGC
Pasala Krishna Rao, Group General Manager, Head Drilling Services, ONGC Rajahmundry Asset, has been elevated as Asset Manager.

Sundaradevan ceases to be Director, Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd
Dr N Sundaradevan, IAS, Former Principal Secretary to Government of Tamil Nadu, Industries Department has ceased to be a Director on the Board of Directors of Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd.

Sachdev quits Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd
Sanjay Sachdev, Independent Director of Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd has resigned from the company.

Naveen Jindal to continue as Chairman, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd
Naveen Jindal will continue as Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. He resigned as Managing Director.

Varshney appointed Company Secy., Rollatainers Ltd
Ms Aakanksha Varshney has been appointed as Company Secretary of Rollatainers Ltd .

Chhabria ceases to be Alternate Director, India Steel Works Ltd
Gaurav Chhabria, has ceased to be an Alternate Director to S P Khosla, Director of India Steel Works Ltd with immediate effect

Chigurupati ceases to be MD, Zenotech Laboratories Ltd
Dr Jayaram Chigurupati has ceased to be the Managing Director of Zenotech Laboratories Ltd.

Shenoy appointed Company Secy. Stel Holdings Ltd
Mithun B Shenoy has been appointed as the Company Secretary of Stel Holdings Ltd.

Das quits BCCL
Bhaskar Das has quit Bennet Coleman & Company Ltd (BCCL). His next movement is not known yet.

Garg appointed GM, Host Analytics
Host Analytics has appointed Anurag Garg as General Manager for India.

Parmar appointed GM, Formula 1 Hotel, Ahmedabad
Ketan Parmar has been appointed as General Manager, Formula 1 Hotel, Ahmedabad.

Partha Bhattacharyya joins Deepak Fertilisers
Former Coal India CMD, Partha Bhattacharyya has joined Deepak Fertilisers as Executive Director.

Mishra quits Mediacamen Biotech
Anand Mishra has resigned as Director of Mediacamen Biotech.

Sachdev quits Gammon Infrastructure
Sanjay Sachdev has resigned as Director of Gammon Infrastructure.

Bachhwat quits Sangam Advisors
Pulkit Bacchawat has resigned as CEO of Sangam Advisors.

Srihari quits Basil Infra Projects
CH Srihari has resigned as Director of Basil Infra Projects.

(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)

Five years cooling off required for AIS officers contesting polls

All India Service (AIS) officers should not be allowed to contest elections even after getting VRS. This shows they were having a 'soft corner' towards the political party during their service they plan to join and contest elections and after getting assured of a ticket stage manage the VRS. There should be a gap of at least 5 years after getting VRS for contesting elections.

U Kumar

Gutkha more troublesome for politicians

Ajit Pawar came in trouble as he touched Gutkha. If you see the past history who so ever has tried to do so lost his seat. Ambumoni Ramodass, Shatrughan Sinha in past and Ajit Pawar recently. Trouble started for Nitish Kumar - a court case which may claim his chair. Arjun Munda - JMM started demanding 28 months chief minister ship for them. Narendra Modi - lost in Ahmedabad Municpal elections after 20 years. UPA - from stable partner to unstable partner. So next in cue are Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Raman Singh, Sheila Dixit and Prem Kumar Dhumal.

Sanjay Bechan

Future of India

Modi is future of India

Amin Shaikh

Congrats.!

Mr. Sahay, Congrats.!

Dr Neelam Goyal

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)