What people say about us!

Too good as most of your information are true

Vishal Kumar

Major reshuffle likely
Major reshuffle is likely to take place in the Congress organization and the Ministry headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh soon.

Alok Kumar Misra poised to be new Member SEBI
As the grapevine has it, Alok Kumar Misra Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Bank of India (BOI) is poised to be a Member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). He is due to retire in September 2012. He was one of nine candidates who were interviewed for two posts of Member in the SEBI on May 8, 2012.

Prashant Saran ready to play his 2nd innings as Member, SEBI
As the grapevine has it, Prashant Saran Member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) whose current term expires on May 17, 2012 is ready to play his second innings as Member, SEBI. He was one of nine candidates who were interviewed for two posts of Member in the SEBI on May 8, 2012.

Rajesh Bhushan poised to be Joint Secretary, Rural Development
As the grapevine has it, Rajesh Bhushan on central deputation is poised to be Joint Secretary, Rural Development. He is a Bihar cadre IAS officer of 1987 batch. Presently, he is Principal Secretary (PS) Information & Public Relation to the Bihar Government. He is also holding charges of State Project Director, Bihar Education Project and Bihar Secondary Education Council.

Did Rajagopal say no for Police Commissioner, Delhi?
Did V Rajagopal say "No" for the post of Police Commissioner of Delhi. 1976 batch IPS officer of UT cadre Rajagopal is presently Special Director in the Intelligence Bureau.

Mahboob Alam is new ADG ITBP
Dr. Mahbood Alam has taken over the charge as the Additional Director General of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBPF). He is a Tamil Nadu Cadre IPS Officer of 1981 batch.

J & K DGP Khoda gets six months extension!
Kuldeep Khoda, Director General of Police Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) who was to retire on May 30 has reportedly been given six months extension in his service. He is an IPS officer of 1974 batch who belongs to the J&K cadre.

Srivastava to be new CMD of FACT
Jalveer Srivastava is all set to be appointed as new CMD of the Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd (FACT). The PESB has put his name number one in the panel. He is presently CMD of the HPL.

Mystery shrouds delay in Sharan's appointment as AS, Revenue
Mystery shrouds delay in appointment of Ajit M Sharan as Additional Secretary Revenue in the Government of India. He is a Haryana cadre IAS officer of 1979 batch. A Bachelor of Technology graduate from IIT Delhi in Electronics, Ajit M. Sharan, has also done MBA from Louisiana State University besides a Masters degree in Development Economics. At present he is Principal Secretary (Power) in Haryana.

Justice Bhandari to join ICJ this month end!
Justice Dalveer Bhandari sitting judge of the Supreme Court who has been elected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), The Hague is expected to join his new assignment this month end.
(We said this on December 9, 2011 and again on January 27)

Appointment of Justice Lokur this month
Appointment of Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court Justice M B Lokur as Judge of the Supreme Court of India is expected to be made after the departure of Justice Dalveer Bhandari to The Hague.

Alok Sinha in fray for post of ICAO in Montreal
As the grapevine has it, Alok Sinha, Joint Secretary, Civil Aviation, is one of the two incumbents who is in contention for India's representative at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Montreal. He is Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer of the 1986 batch. The last date for applying was April 16, 2012. Present incumbent Arun Mishra will be completing his tenure in August 2012. Arun Mishra is an IAS officer of the 1986 batch who belongs to the West Bengal cadre.

Meenu Choudhary to be SP CBI
Ms Meenu Choudhary has been appointed SP in the CBI for a period of 4 years. She is 2000 batch IPS officer of UT cadre.

Chaurasia to be SP CBI
Keshav Ram Chaurasia has been appointed SP in the CBI for a period of 4 years. He is 2003 batch IPS officer of J & K cadre.

Sonal Agnihotri to be SP CBI
Sonal Agnhotri has been appointed SP in the CBI for a period of 4 years. Sonal is 2004 batch IPS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre.

Navy Chief to retire in August
Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma is superannuating in August.

P K Chatterjee to get new assignment in Navy!
Vice Admiral P K Chatterjee is being tipped to be Deputy Chief of Naval Staff as first submariner.

IA & AS officer Sriram promoted as PAG, AP
K R Sriram, Accountant General (Economic and Revenue Sector Audit), Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, has been promoted to the grade of Principal Accountant General (PAG) and will hold elevated post at the same place under the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG). He is an IA&AS officer of 1987 batch.

3 PS banks to have 2 EDs each
As many as three public sector (PS) banks will have two Executive Directors(EDs) each in days to follow. Banks that will have two EDs as against existing one are United Bank of India, Vijaya Bank and Punjab & Sind Bank.

IFS officer is Secretary Health in Delhi Government
A J Kurian has been appointed Secretary Health and Family Welfare in the Delhi Government. He is 1987 batch IFS officer of UT cadre.

Digal is now PS in Delhi Government
Janak Digal has been appointed Principal Secretary SC/ST,OBC and Minorities in the Delhi Government. He is 1985 batch IAS officer.

Anand Prakash relieved for Andman & Nicobar
Delhi Government has relieved 1979 batch IAS officer Anand Prakash to join as Chief Secretary of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

128 positions of IAS officers vacant in Bihar cadre
As many as 128 positions of IAS officers have been lying vacant in Bihar cadre. There are 198 officers in position against strength of 326 IAS officers in the State.

Pandey to be High Commissioner to New Zealand
A K Pandey is being tipped to be new Indian High Commissioner to New Zealand. He is currently posted in Sudan.

Ashok Kumar gets extension in Berlin
Counsellor in Indian Embassy Berlin Ashok Kumar has been given extension till December end this year.

IAS officer suspended in Punjab
The Punjab Government has suspended 1998 batch IAS officer Vikas Garg.

Post of Member (Legal) in PNGRB vacant
The post of Member (Legal) in oil regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) is vacant.

Bhavesh R. Trivedi is Deputy Secretary in MEA
Bhavesh R. Trivedi on central deputation has joined the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) as a Deputy Secretary. He is an Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officer of 2000 batch.

Chaudhary takes over as SP Traffic in Chandigarh
2005 batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre Munish Chaudhary has taken over as new SP, Traffic in Chandigarh.

Seminar on 'change management' at NADT, Nagpur on May 17
A seminar on 'Change Management' is being held for Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers at National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT), from May 17 to 18, 2012.

20 senior IAS officers shifted in Rajasthan (UPDATED)
As many as 20 senior IAS officers of Rajasthan have been transferred and posted at different places. Accordingly, Mrs. Asha Singh has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Director General, Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur while Umrao Salodia will now be Additional Chief Secretary, Tribal Regional Development and Rohit R Brandon is posted as Chairman and Managing Director, Spinfed. Similarly, Ms. Gurjot Kaur has been appointed as Principal Secretary, Literature, Arts, and Culture; Dr. Malovika Panwar as Principal Secretary, Revenue, Religious Pilgrimages; Vipin Chandra Sharma as Principal Secretary, Cooperative; Om Prakash Saini as Principal Secretary Water Resources; Tapesh Panwar as Principal Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs; Manohar Kant as Principal Secretary, Sports and Youth Affairs; Pritam Singh as Commissioner, Social Justice; Khemraj Chaudhary as Commissioner, Commercial Taxes; Rajiv Swarup as Principal Secretary, Higher Education and Technical Education; Jagdish Chandra Mohanty as Principal Secretary, Public Works; Sudarshan Sethi as Principal Secretary, Personnel; Siyaram Meena as Principal Secretary, Minority Affairs and Wakf Board; Prem Singh Mehra as Chairman, Rajasthan Tax Board, Ajmer; Pawan Kumar Goyal as Secretary, Self-Government; Niranjan Kumar Arya as Registrar, Cooperative; T Ravikant as Commissioner, Rajasthan Housing Board and Dr. Rajesh Sharma has been posted as Director, Monitoring Programme Implementation.

Five IAS officers get addl. charges in Rajasthan (UPDATED)
Five senior IAS officers have been given additional charges in Rajasthan. Accordingly, Dr. Dinesh Kumar Goyal, Principal Secretary, Horticulture has been assigned additional charge of Agriculture Department while Dr. Purushottam Agrawal, Principal Secretary, Programme Implementation will hold additional charge of Public Health Engineering and Bhaskwar Atmaram Swant, Secretary, School Education is given additional charge of Commissioner, Rajasthan Primary Education Council. Besides, Atul Sharma, Divisional Commissioner, Ajmer will also be looking as Inspector General, Registration and Stamp and Dr. V S Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment and Forests, has been additional charge of Chairman, Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board, Jaipur.

Dr. T Prabhakara Rao is also Transport Commissioner in TN (UPDATED)
Dr. T Prabhakara Rao, Principal Secretary, Transport, has been assigned additional charge of Transport Commissioner in Tamil Nadu. He is a 1982 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.

Rao is new CVO MIDHANI (UPDATED)
G Surya Prakasa Rao (Director Level) has been appointed as Chief Vigilance Officer in the Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited, (MIDHANI), Hyderabad. He is 1996 batch IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre.

Sonmoni Borah is Director Public Relations in Chhattisgarh (UPDATED)
Commissioner Chhattisgarh Housing Board Sonmoni Borah has also been appointed Director Public Relations in Chhattisgarh. He is 1999 batch IAS officer.

China and India hold first high-level steel dialogue at Beijing (UPDATED)
A 'steel dialogue' exchange forum between China and India was launched on May 9, 2012, marking a significant development in world steel industry, with two of the top five steel producing countries coming together to share resources. On this occasion, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed which focused on establishing a frequent dialogue amongst steel industries of both nations. Zhu Jimin, Chairman CISA and Chairman Shougang Group Corp., represented Republic of China, and C S Verma, Chairman (Steel Authority of India Limited), a Maharatna PSU signed on behalf of the Indian Delegation. The MoU was witnessed by U P Singh, Joint Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Steel, senior officials of SAIL, Tata Steel, JSW, ESSAR & JSPL from India, while Chinese contingent consisted of representatives from China's steel companies such as Bao Steel, Wuhan Steel, Government of PR China-MIIT and steel equipment manufacturers. Speaking on the occasion, SAIL Chairman Verma asserted that through the MoU, a platform for building a dialogue and cooperation in major steel related areas will be addressed. He also mentioned that it will open new corridors for venturing with the Chinese Steel Industry and also facilitate in addressing emerging issues in the evolving steel markets like technology transfer, joint venture, training for developing expertise in design engineering, operation, construction, research & development, etc. Zhu Jimin, Chairman CISA and Chairman Shougang Group Corp., mentioned that such dialogue is a step forwards towards strengthening cooperation in steel raw materials as well as Metallurgical technology equipment cooperation, sharing an information on steel statistics and regular communication on steel product trade issues. He appreciated that such forum will discuss strategic macro-economic issues impacting both nations as a result of the changing international economic and financial landscape, to share their individual best practices and in handling challenging domestic economic issues and to identify specific fields for enhancing cooperation, learning and experience sharing.

DEBATE

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked civil servants to take bold decisions, assuring them that there would be no witch-hunting in the name of fighting corruption. How far it is possible ?

Mail your views-mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com or Suresh. Mehrotra @yahoo.com

CORPORATE

Gupta is now Chairman of AVN in UP
IAS officer Anil Kumar Gupta has been given additional charge of the Chairman of the Industrial Development Corporation in Uttar Pradesh.

Jaitley appointed President (Enterprise Solutions Business), HCL Infosystems
HCL Infosystems has appointed Neeraj Jaitley as President (Enterprise Solutions Business).

Shah resigns as Whole-time Director, Garden Silk Mills Ltd
Ms Shilpa P. Shah, Whole-time Director Garden Silk Mils Ltd has resigned from the company w.e.f. May 1, 2012.

Powle resigns as Company Secy. Jindal South West Holdings Ltd
Ms. Prajakta Powle has resigned as Company Secretary of Jindal South West Holdings Ltd w.e.f. May 3, 2012.

Venkatakrishnan resigns as Director, Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd
S Venkatakrishnan, Director, Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd has resigned from the Board of Directors of the company w.e.f. May 8, 2012.

Sridhar appointed Director, Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd
R Sridhar has been appointed as Director of Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd.

Ramanathan re-appointed MD & CEO, Exide Industries Ltd
Exide Industries Ltd has re-appointed T. V. Ramanathan as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company w.e.f. May 1, 2012.

Venkatesh appointed IDBI Bank Nominee on 3i Infotech Board
N. S. Venkatesh, Chief General Manager, Treasury Department, IDBI Bank Limited has been appointed as Nominee Director on the Board of 3i Infotech Ltd w.e.f. May 8, 2012.

Exim Bank withdraws its Nominee from Banswara Syntex Ltd
Exim Bank has withdrawn the nomination of Dr. R. Swaminathan on the Board of Banswara Syntex Ltd.

Ravindranath is new Exim Bank Nominee on Banswara Syntex Board
C. P. Ravindranath has been appointed as a new Exim bank Nominee on the Board of Banswara Syntex Ltd.

Gupta appointed Company Secy. Nagreeka Capital and Infrastructure Ltd
Nagreeka Capital and Infrastructure Ltd has appointed Ms. Swatika Gupta as Company Secretary of the company w.e.f. April 19, 2012.

Panda resigns as Company Secy. Nagreeka Capital and Infrastructure Ltd
Prakash Chandra Panda has resigned as Company Secretary of Nagreeka Capital and Infrastructure Ltd w.e.f. April 9, 2012.

Viswanath resigns as Company Secy. Madhucon Projects Ltd
E N Viswanath has resigned as Company Secretary of Madhucon Projects Ltd.

Dass appointed Addl. Director, Samtel India Ltd
Purshottam Dass has been appointed as an Additional Director of Samtel India Ltd w.e.f. May 3, 2012.

Mahajan resigns as Director, Competent Automobiles Company Ltd
Harish Mahajan has resigned as Director of Competent Automobiles Company Ltd w.e.f. April 20, 2012.

Singhal appointed as whole time director of Whirlpool of India
Vikas Singhal has been appointed as whole time director of Whirlpool of India.

Mahajan resigns as director of Competent Automobiles Company
Harish Mahajan has resigned from the directorship of Competent Automobiles Company.

Kunze appointed as vice chairman, Edelman Asia Pacific
Cornelia Kunze has been appointed as vice chairman, Edelman Asia Pacific.

Jaitley appointed as President HCL Infosystems
Neeraj Jaitley has been appointed as President of Enterprise Solutions HCL Infosystems.

Shi appointed as executive director of Ineos ABS India
Myung Suk Shi has been appointed as executive director of Ineos ABS India.

Mohanlal is right. Persons who subverted democratic process during emergency should not be supported as Presidential candidate. Nation should consider persons of stature like Abdul Kalam, Amartya Sen etc.

Bijon

Will it adversely affect poll prospects of UPA?

Bodhi Pragyeya's perception regarding impact of IIS officer's transfers on 2014 General elections is ludicrous, egotistic and brutally pompous. Bureaucrat's obsession with self-importance is usually self-defeating. I am not a soothsayer. But, the Congress-led UPA is bound to pay a heavy price for all its misdeeds. Factors like public disillusionment, serial scams, rising inflation, non-functional dejure PM, the Congress's arrogance, misuse of investigative agencies for political ends etc, will be primary contributors to UPA's debacle. IIS officer's transfers will not fall even in the tertiary category.

A K Sabena (A retired civil servant)

RSRTC treats tourists worse than Cattle Class

The Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation seems to be so apathetic towards the tourists that it gives them the treatment accorded to below 'cattle class', that too with a fare of Rs 685 for a seat in its pride of the Volvo luxury coaches on the Delhi-Jaipur/Jaipur- Delhi route. If interested please see seat no 14 on the coach that left Jaipur for Delhi at 1430 hrs on 5/5/2012. It neither reclines nor straightens! The coach gives jerks on the national Highway No 8 which are back breaking. The experience with the RTDC run hotel Gangaur too leaves a bad impression for the dirty linen and poor quality of food. What impression the foreign visitors carry can only be imagined. Isn't apathy of such scale any better than outright corruption?

M L Gupta

Only IAS officers will be appointed?

Yes, only IAS officers will be appointed. They do not need any prior knowledge of any field as they are extra ordinary in their intelligence. Even a person with no Telecom background can immediately start putting things in order as TRAI chairman.

Ramesh Chandra

Is a penalty leviable if information is provided after the order of FAA?

An advocate had been removed from the panel of advocates of a bank. He filed an application under RTI seeking information related to his removal from the panel such as whether the branch manager has written a letter to the zonal office regarding his removal and whether he was removed on the basis of that letter. He also sought a copy of the said letter. The Public Information Officer (PIO) denied the information claiming what has been sought is not information as defined under section 2(f) and is beyond the purview of the RTI Act. The copy of the letter was refused stating that it pertained to internal correspondence between the Branch and Zonal office. However, the PIO provided the information on the directions of the First Appellate Authority (FAA). The appellant submitted before the CIC that the PIO should be penalized for the delay in providing the information. The Commission rejected the appeal noting that the appellant had framed the query in Hindi in such a way that some deductions would have to be made to understand the information he was seeking and thus the PIO's helplessness was understandable.

Comments

There are cases where a PIO may be confused while reading a RTI application whether an interpretation has been sought or the applicant wants a copy of certain documents. In such cases, the PIO may seek clarification from the applicant.

Citation: Mr. Narendra Kumar Gupta v. Allahabad Bank in Decision No. CIC/SG/A/2012/000593/18384

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)