The whispersinthecorridors Online
Print from origin : whispersinthecorridors.com > Archive > 5th October 2014 Sunday

What people say about us!

We have been able to know all future appointments in high offices of India through this website.
S N Kumar


POLITICS

When nothing else inspires, History does ! (103)
People resent a joke if there is some truth in it.

Similarity between the Congress and the BJP !

What is the similarity between the Congress and the BJP ? Answer came from a seasoned politician " Without RSS there is no BJP and without Nehru-Gandhi family there is no Congress ".


BUREAUCRACY

Selection interviews for six Directorial positions in PSUs in October
It is reliably learnt that PESB is all set to hold the selection interviews for as many as six Directorial positions for PSUs in the month of October. The expected interviews are; Director (Finance), Mazhgaon Docs Ltd, Director (Finance) ONGC, Director (O&T) Dredging Corporation of India, Director (Operations) Oil India Ltd, Director (Finance) BHEL & Director (P&BP) SAIL.

Sharma poised to be empanelled as ADG, GoI

As the grapevine has it, Anil Kumar Sharma may soon be empanelled as ADG, Govt of India. He is 1984 batch IPS officer of Punjab cadre.

Vinson Paul poised to be empanelled as ADG, GoI

As the grapevine has it, Vinson M Paul may soon be empanelled as ADG, Govt of India. He is 1984 batch IPS officer of Kerala cadre.

Toshi Aier is new CS of Nagaland
Toshi Aier is taking over as the new Chief Secretary of Nagaland on Saturday. Toshi is 1978 batch IAS officer. He would succeed 1977 batch IAS Nagaland's first woman chief secretary Banuo Z Jamir.

Abhay to join central deputation at IG level !

Abhay is all set to join Central deputation at Inspector General level post. He is a 1986 batch IPS officer of Odisha cadre.

Prasad to join as CEO, CPSE !

Rajiv Ranjan Prasad is expected to join as Chief Vigilance Officer in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) on central deputation at Joint Secretary level. He is a 1983 batch IRPS officer.

Post of CVO, DCIL, falling vacant

The post of Chief Vigilance Officer(CVO),Dredging Corporation of India Ltd(DCIL),Visakhapatnam, is falling vacant in October,2014.

Khichi likely to join central deputation

Umesh Kumar Khichi is expected to join central deputation at Deputy Secretary/Director level in Government of India. He is a 1996 batch Indian Telecom Service officer.

PESB advertises post of CMD, PGCIL
The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has invited applications for the post of Chairman and Managing Director, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) falling vacant next year on October 1, 2015. Those willing to apply for this post can send their applications to the PESB before November 27, 2014.

PESB seeks applications for Director (Fin), HUDCO

The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has invited applications for the post of Director (Finance), Housing & Urban Development Cooperation LTD (HUDCO) falling vacant next year on October 1, 2015. Those willing to apply for this post can send their applications to the PESB before November 26, 2014.

IRS-IT officer, Pitambar Das pursuing Studies in Switzerland
Indian Revenue Service officer of Income Tax cadre, Pitambar Das presently Additional CIT, Mumbai, is pursuing Studies in International Taxation at University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

D Nalini Mohan transferred as Special Secretary, Planning in AP
D Nalini Mohan has been posted as Special Secretary, Planning Department in Andhra Pradesh. He is a 1987 batch IFS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre.

Mrs Veena Ash posted as Spl Commissioner, AP Bhawan, Delhi
Mrs Veena Ash has been posted as Special Commissioner AP Bhavan, New Delhi. She is a 1985 batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre.

4 IAS Officers transferred
As many as 4 IAS officers have been transferred in Andhra Pradesh. Accordingly, K V N Chakradhara Babu has been posted as Commissioner, Nellore municipal Corporation, Nellore while Shashank Goel will be now Secretary, YAT&C Department and Pravin Kumar is made Commissioner Municipal Corporation, Guntur. Similarly, M Jagdish Babu is posted as Secretary, AP State Planning Board.

Training Program for police officers to be held in USA
A training program for police officers on 'Hazardous Material Technician Training Program' (HMTTP) is being held in USA from October 17 to November 7, 2014.

 


CORPORATE

Mohnot appointed CFO & CS, Gujarat Sidhee Cement Ltd
Gujarat Sidhee Cement Limited has appointed V R Mohnot as Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of the company.

Venkatraman ceases to be Director ( Business Development ) GAIL (India) Limited
S Venkatraman has ceased to be Director ( Business Development ) , GAIL (India) Limited.

Agarwal appointed Director, Suryajyoti Spinning Mills Ltd
Suryajyoti Spinning Mills Limited has appointed Neha Agarwal as Director of the company .

Desai resigns as Director, Welspun Projects Limited
Atul Desai has resigned as Director of Welspun Projects Limited.

Sangwan appointed Independent Director, JSW Energy Ltd
JSW Energy Limited has appointed Ms Sheila Sangwan as an Independent Director of the company.

Reddy resigns as Non Exec. Director, Viceroy Hotels Ltd
A Vijayavardhan Reddy has resigned as Non Executive Director of Viceroy Hotels Limited.

Asher resigns as Independent Director, Sanghvi Movers Ltd

Sanjay Asher has resigned as Independent Director of Sanghvi Movers Limited.

Ms Sinha appointed Independent Non Exec. Director, Educomp Solutions Ltd
Educomp Solutions Limited has appointed Ms Swati Sinha as Independent Non Executive Director of the company.

Gaggar resigns as Independent Director, SPML Infra Limited
R L Gaggar has resigned as Independent Director of SPML Infra Limited due to his other commitments from the Board of Directors of the company.


FORUM

(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)

Governance [Few questions]

1. Approx. a billion US $ is spent by the states & UTs of India to run this nation. Are the citizens happy ?
2. Why is FDI into India in US $ hardly anything when compared to China ?
3.Why is tourist traffic into India so less when compared to china ?
4. Why is percentage of world trade so less when compared to china ?
5. Why is our agricultural productivity so poor when compared to china ?
6.Why Life expectancy is also so less when we compare to china ?
7.Why is our electrical loss due to transmission & other losses from electricity boards very high when we compare to china ?
8. Why is our foreign exchange reserves so poor when compared to china ?
9.Why does HIV/AIDS affect bigger population in India compared to china ?
10. Why are our fruits & vegetables damaged or destroyed due to poor farm management, every year ?
11. India receives a lot of rain but why because of poor water management we run into floods or drought ?
12. Why are our educated & experienced bureaucrats/technocrats not able to find the answers to the above questions, till date to save us ?
13. Is it lack of willingness or inability or bureaucracy which is slowing down the growth along with corruption ?
14. Is it our License Raj in higher and technical education that is restricting growth,R&D, quality and capacity ?
15. Where is the problem that a large nation like ours is struggling despite the best brains manning important Govt. positions at every corner office?


Kaushik Sengupta


A Letter to PM Narendra Modi

Increasing Efficiency of Government of India officers

Respected Sir,

You have promised to citizens of India to deliver an efficient governance system for taking the country on path of high growth, low inflation and employment generation. Officers and Staff of Government of India are means for delivery of governance. You have rightly taken a tough stand against delays, laxity and inefficiency on part of officers of government of India. They are now expected to keep high standards of morality, total commitment to duty and timely adhering to working hours.
While putting long hours at office, officers want to be free of tensions of home. Some of which, concerning almost every officer are:

Residential quarters with attached servant rooms:

At present, quarter position for central government employees is very bad. Officers are getting very small quarters much below their entitlement at far off places due to shortage of proper quarters.
I, request you to kindly advice CPWD to construct good size quarters attached with servant rooms for allotment to all officers of central government.
School admission: School admission of children of officers is very tough in metro cities especially Delhi. When officers are transferred to Delhi, they need to repeatedly personally visit schools for at least 3-6 months. This is one of reason for absenteeism or late arrival on duty to office. Advising good schools in vicinity of government quarters to accommodate the wards of officers on transfer would enable officers devout more time to duty and concentrate better on work.
Education department can be advised by your good self to issue such instructions.
Transport facilities: Official vehicle and driver is provided to officers of Government of India. Some of ministries are providing official vehicles to junior officers while some are restricting it to officers of level joint secretary and above only. Official vehicle and Driver costs at least Rs 1 lac per month to Government. Further, this vehicle although allotted for official use is also used for personal use of officers.
Officers whether senior of junior, need to attend their official and personal works also in day time. In absence of official vehicles, they need to drive out of office for such works.
Sir, I request you to considerately look into the issue. With good availability of taxi services in most of cities, a hired vehicle (taxi) can be engaged @ Rs 25000 - 30000 per month. While transport allowance payable to officers varies between Rs 6400 - Rs 14000 per month. Apart from this, worth time wasted by officers in driving vehicles to office and for private works is much more than expenditure on this account.
I, therefore request you to permit officially hired taxi vehicles to all officers of grade Dy Secy and above at least. These taxi vehicles can be used by officers for official and private purposes within prescribed kilometre limits.
Government vehicles should be parked in offices only and very senior officers only can be permitted to use them for official confidential visits only. Use of private vehicles would decrease the power distance of government officers to common public and make governance more democratic. Officers will not be able to get preferential treatment from other authorities, which common citizens cannot get.
Incentives: Incentive structure is very poorly defined and many say that it is not present for public servants. In order to motivate the central government employee to achieve results, performance linked financial incentives like yearend bonus may be defined. Performance parameters should be such that they are aligned with objectives of department. In present APR system, staff and officers are not judged on basis of performance but on basis of obedience for superiors.
I request you to consider awarding Incentives to central government employees in form of bonus which is upto 50% of annual salary based on their performance. Top officers as Leaders have greatest role in success/performance of an organisation/department. An appropriate incentive system would start from defining individual targets which align incentives of top officers with short and long term goals of the organisations/departments. Very low efficiency and effectiveness of lower officials can be overcome though financial incentives for group output.
Sir, these legitimate perks would not cost much to the government but would greatly benefit the honest officers. Besides improvement in effectiveness of departments, these would endear you to big section of Government officers.

A Central Government Officer

Superiority of IAS and IPS over other services.


If an IAS officer can work as Chairman of a Port Trust, Director of a Financial Institution, Chairman of a Regulatory Body with technical expertise or some other influence pedaling portfolios purely out of clout rather efficiency, why any other learned civil servant from Allied Civil Services or of impeccable academic credentials relevant to the post cannot be a Defense Secretary or a Telecom Secretary etc. The one post left out of the vagaries of the IAS is the Secretary DOS. In my view, the outstanding achievers from private sector shall be brought into the government service on lateral entry at the JS level and above and no IAS shall be promoted above JS level without any proven efficiency and not merely out of seniority. It can only be seen in India that the entire batches of a particular cadre are empanelled without even vacancies and placed on ex-cadre posts which are created without any necessary simply to accommodate the babudom. Some even argue that the Private Sector does hire ex IAS / IPS to manage their enterprise. But in reality barring any few cases most of the retired civil servants were hired by private enterprises for their influencing skills to lobby with the government with their mighty clout rather than their efficiency. The recent apex court directions in the CVC empanelment is a harbinger to break the strangle hold of the IAS / IPS lobby on the government functioning. The other reason for their supremacy is the inefficient and defunct political establishment which needs to be spoon fed by these babus thus solely relying on them leaving the turf for manipulation by them.


BYN

DATE WITH RTI

All information about a government servant is private

The appellant sought certified copies of the documents of all the lecturers/HODs of a Polytechnic college relating to their names, appointment orders, promotion orders, pay fixation orders, pay fixation orders after 6th Pay Commission, enhancement orders, pay modification/alteration orders, etc. The matter came up before the Central Information Commission which ruled that except for information that can be disclosed u/s 4(1)(b), all other information about the employees would be personal information, which includes the service details, property returns, etc. The CIC directed the public authority to give only the information relating to the names of the lecturers working in the Polytechnic, along with their designations and pay scale.

Comments

Many public information officers are harassed by RTI applicants who seek information about a government servant through a series of RTI applications. This order provides a way to deal with such cases.


Citation: Mr. M.C.Ghatak v. Directorate of Training & Technical Education, GNCTD in File No.CIC/AD/A/2013/001541SA

Weekly article by Dr Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in), RTI Consultant to IIM, Indore. Her other articles regarding RTI can be read at http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/

Dr Suresh Mehrotra has his lips sealed, if you have any whispers then send it to us
© www.whispersinthecorridors.com. (ANN) All rights reserved.