What people say about us!

A Herculean & fantastic work pioneered by you & your team which goes a long way in shaping things to come in future in India. I am not only enthused but also indebted to you personally because I am 1976 - 1981 batch civil Engineer from MACT Bhopal. I convey my heartfelt
appreciation/affiliation to you.

Ravi

BUREAUCRACY

Amit Dasgupta is new Ambassador to Philippines
Amit Dasgupta, presently Consul General in Sydney, has been appointed Ambassador of India to the Republic of the Philippines.
(We said this on Feb 6)

Orders of S Narsing Rao as CIL head issued
Orders for the appointment of S Narsing Rao on the post of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Coal India Ltd.(CIL) have been issued. Presently he is CMD of the state controlled Singareni Collieries Company of Andhra Pradesh. He is going to be the maiden IAS officer
who will be CMD of the CIL. He is Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer of 1986 batch.
(We said this on February 16)

DG NSG to retire this month end
R K Medhekar, Director General, National Security Guards (NSG) is superannuating on April 30, 2012 and thus the post will be vacated at the end of this month.

Salim is back to West Bengal
P B Salim, a 2001 batch IAS officer who was on inter-cadre deputation to Kerala, is back to the parent West Bengal cadre. On return Salim has been posted as Director, ESI.

Jacob posted as AG (Eco.& Revenue), Thiruvanthapuram
Biju Jacob, Accountant General (LBA&A), Kerala, Thiruvanthapuram, has been transferred and posted as Accountant General ( Economic and Revenue Sector Audit), Kerala, Thiruvanthapuram.

Gupta joins DDA as Addl Deputy Commissioner DDA
J L Gupta on deputation has joined Delhi Development Authority (DDA) as Additional Deputy Commissioner. He an Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officer of 1998 batch.

Ms Kaur applies for the post of Director NHRC
Ms. Inderjeet Kaur has applied for the post of Director, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). She is an Indian Defence Estate Services Officer of 1990 batch.

Bureaucratic changes in Haryana next week
P K Chaudhary has taken over as new Chief Secretary of Haryana. Now a bureaucratic reshuffle is on the cards in the state,

IAS and IPS reshuffle in Uttarakhand soon
IAS and IPS reshuffle is going to take place in Uttarakhand next week.

Three IPS officers of various batches resign
Three more Indian Police Service officers belonging to 1985, 1990 and 2004 batches have resigned on personal grounds.

IPS annual batch-size increased
The Government of India has increased the annual batch-size of Regular Recruits of the Indian Police Service from 103 to 150.

Sunil Soni appointed Additional Secretary, Banking
Sunil Soni has been appointed new Additional Secretary, Financial Services, in the Government of India. He is 1981 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre.
(We said this on April 2)

Hashmi is new DPR, Delhi Government
IAS officer, F O Hashmi, has been appointed new Director Information and Public Relations in the Delhi Government.

Dev gets additional charge in Delhi Government
V K Dev has been given additional charge of Secretary SC,ST and OBC and MD DSFDC in the Delhi Government. He is 1987 batch IAS officer of UT cadre.

NIA seeks SP level officers on deputation
National Investigation Agency (NIA), under the Finance Department, is seeking the names of willing SP level officers on deputation basis. The names can be sent to the Directorate of Income Tax, New Delhi, within one week.

All Supreme Court judgments on its website
All the judgments and orders of the Supreme Court are reported in various law reports and are available on the Supreme Court websites i.e. www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in and www.sci.nic.in and can be accessed there from.

10 posts of Judges vacant in Karnataka HC
As many as 10 posts of judges have been lying vacant in Karnataka High Court against 50 approved strength including one post of Permanent Judge against 33 approved strength and nine of Additional Judges against 17 approved strength.

Lamba transferred to Delhi
Kuldip Kumar Lamba, Deputy Director General, NASA has been transferred to NAD, CSO,New Delhi as Deputy Director General. He is an Indian Statistical Officer of 1984 batch.

Three SPG officials selected for Training in UK
Three officers of Special Protection Group (SPG) have been selected for the one month Mid carreer training in UK. They are SPG Chief K Durga Prasad, Andhra Pradesh cadre (1981 batch, Sudeep Lakhtakia, Andhra Pradesh cadre (batch 1984) and Rajesh Malik, AGMU cadre (1986
batch)

Post of CCF, NTCA in Bangalore vacant
The Bangalore located post of CCF in National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has been lying vacant.

Post of Secretary vacant in PSERC, Chandigarh
The post of Secretary in Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC), Chandigarh, is lying vacant on deputation basis. The interested candidates can apply for the post within one month.

Khinya Ram to get pro-forma promotion
Khinya Ram, Additional Director, Intelligence Bureau, Jaipur, is recommended by the State Government to Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India for proforma promotion in DGP rank. He is an IPS officer of 1981 batch who belongs to Manipur Tripura Cadre.

Post of Jute Commissioner, Kolkata re-advertised
The post of Jute Commissioner, Kolkata, West Bengal, is still lying vacant with the Ministry of Textiles Government of India re-advertising the vacancy seeking penal for the same. The interested candidates can send their applications for this joint secretary level post to the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India.

Khan is new Law Secretary in Uttar Pradesh
Z U Khan has been appointed the new Principal Secretary, Law, and state Legal in Uttar Pradesh.

Gautam is Information Commissioner in West Bengal
Outgoing Home Secretary West Bengal G D Gautam has taken over as new Information Commissioner in West Bengal.

IAS officer is back to Sikkim (UPDATED)
K.Sreenivasulu who was on inter-cadre deputation to Chhattisgarh is back to the parent Sikkim cadre. On return 1994 batch IAS officer Sreenivasulu has been posted as Managing Director, Government ,Fruit Preservation Factory,Singtam,on deputation .

DEBATE - Should bureaucrats alone be held accountable for policy decisions ?

Bureaucrats now feel that Ministers and Politicians also be held responsible for 'policy decisions' taken by the government. They also want that entire cabinet should be held accountable for policy decisions. How far they are correct in their thinking ?

Mail your to the point views to suresh.mehrotra@yahoo.com or mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com

CORPORATE

Maitra is CEO of BSL
Anutosh Maitra Limited has taken over as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Bokaro Steel (BSL).

Srivastava appointed VP (National Sales), Hyundai Motor India
Hyundai Motor India has appointed Rakesh Srivastava as the Vice President (National Sales) .

Bidarkar appointed VP (Business Development), Ecron Acunova Group
Dr Anand Bidarkar has been appointed as Vice President (Business Development ), Ecron Acunova Group.

Malla appointed Exec. Asst. Manager (Sales & Mktg.), The Westin, Mumbai Garden City
Aditya Shamsher Malla has been appointed as Executive Assistant Manager ( Sales & Marketing) at The Westin Mumbai Garden City.

Handa to retire as MD, Pfizer India in August
Kewal Handa, Managing Director, Pfizer India has decided to retire in August 2012.

Kumar appointed Resident Manager, The Suryaa, New Delhi
Dhananjay Kumar has been appointed as Resident Manager, The Suryaa, New Delhi.

Highly demoralised IOFS cadre affecting self reliance in Defence production!

Indian Ordnance Factories Service (IOFS), part of organized Central Services Group 'A' drawn from highly coveted Civil Service & Engineering Service is a cadre of 1718 officers responsible to run and manage 40 Ordnance Factories spread all over India under Deptt.of Defence Production (DDP), Ministry of Defence, Govt.of India. Ordnance Factories are responsible to cater to all requirements of Armament, Weaponry, Ammunitions, Battle Tanks, Vehicles, Equipments etc through indigenized production. Armed Forces are expecting rapid increase in indigenized production from Ordnance Factories keeping the security scenario.

Gen.V K Singh has kicked off a controversy recently through a letter written to the Prime Minister wherein he has raised issues of poor battle preparedness of the Army due to inadequate supply of ammunition and equipment.

There lies some truth behind this raging controversy! Look at this how!

IOFS cadre has been rendered highly stagnant. Second cadre review was taken long time back in 1990. As per Ministry of Personnel guidelines, every ministry/cadre needs to do cadre review every five years. Deptt. of Defence Production (Secretary, Defence Production is cadre controlling authority for IOFS cadre) and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) have miserably failed to carry out mandatory cadre review in last 21 years. OFB had initiated a cadre review proposal during 2003 for increase of 186 (34 HAG & 152 SAG) posts. This proposal kept on shuttling between DDP & OFB. Secretary, Defence Finance finally approved increase of 82 (22 HAG & 60 SAG) posts during 2011 against the recommendation forwarded by DDP of 140 (34 HAG & 106 SAG) post.

After this, DDP suddenly, asked OFB to resubmit fresh proposal of 44 (13 HAG & 31 SAG) posts for cadre review. After taking a decade long in processing cadre review proposal, DDP, finally has sent increase of only four SAG posts!

With the current proposal of cadre review decided by DDP, 1991 IOFS batch will get SAG promotion in 32 years i.e. during 2021 thereby IOFS cadre turning the worst cadre amongst all other organized cadres.

Whereas 1993 batch of Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS) has already got SAG promotion in 2011 and 1991 batch of Indian Ordnance Factories Health Service (IOFHS) has got SAG promotion in 2011. Point to be noted is IDAS & IOFHS under Ministry of Defence, render support services to Ordnance Factories.

During all this while, production turnover has been increased from 4500 crore to 12,000 crores, two more new Ordnance Factories are being opened, Defence Production turning High-Tech and complex every day, requiring high level of commitment, motivation, managerial & technical
expertise.

Every Ordnance Factory is having, at apex level, four to seven IOFS highly demotivated and demoralized officers working at Director level and having more than 20 years of service entrusted to modernize ordnance factories, increase indigenized defence production, establish new high-tech products for Armed Forces. Due to worst stagnancy amongst all the cadres, turnover is high at junior level, officers not joining IOFS after qualifying Civil Service and Engineering Exams leading to more than 30% posts lying vacant.

There appear a method in madness of Ministry of Defence: slow death of Ordnance Factories of 200 years having vast resources, by keeping IOFS lot demotivated leading to stunted growth of Ordnance Factories.

Does this situation (poor self reliance/ indigenized defence production) allow higher volume of importation, suiting to a segment of Defence Ministry? Is this situation being created to transfer larger share of indigenised defence production from government setup to private sector? Does this situation compromise on the larger security interests and defence preparedness of India?

Prime Minister of India and the Defence Minister need to intervene immediately into this sorry state of affairs of DDP for sustainable growth of Ordnance Factories through keeping the workforce motivated.

Satya Prakash

Disclosure of "Default Cases" of the Banks The appellant wanted details of default cases which were compromised by the State Bank of India (SBI) during the last three years. The PIO claimed the matter pertained to commercial confidence and disclosure of trade secrets may harm the competitive position of the entity. He also stated that the information sought was vast and disproportionately can divert the resources of the public authority as per section 7 (9) of the RTI Act. The First Appellate Authority (FAA) also upheld the PIO decision. The appellant argued that he was not seeking the names of the defaulting parties and therefore the argument by the respondents of compromising information pertaining to third parties should not arise. The CIC observed that disclosing the year wise aggregate settled amount by the banks with the defaulting parties will help in transparent functioning of the public authority which is the very objective of the RTI Act. Accordingly, the Commission directed the respondent to furnish information limited to the total number of entities who have defaulted and the total settled amount for the past three years. Comments The rising Non-Performing Assets (NPA) in the banks has been a matter of concern for the citizens which has been wrapped in an opaque process. Hopefully, the implementation of this order would help in restoring transparency in banking industry.

Citation: Shri Kulbhushan Jain v. SBI in Appeal: No. CIC/DS/A/2011/000841

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)