Wednesday, January 20, 2010

UIDAI jobs: Nilekani finds it tough to attract senior government officers; DoPT admits lack of interest for JS level posts


IT’S now official. The much talked about Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) headed by corporate honcho and former Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani has failed to attract government talent as sufficient number of IAS, IPS and officers of other group A services have not shown interest in joining this unique project of giving an identification number to every Indian citizen.
In a candid admission, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) in a wireless message dated January 18, and marked to all state chief secretaries, said: “sufficient nominations have not been received to fill up the posts of deputy director generals (DDG at Joint Secretary level) in each of the regional offices of UIDAI located at Lucknow, Mumbai, Ranchi, Guwahati and Chandigarh”. Earlier, the DoPT in a message dated October 7, 2009, had asked state chief secretaries and other cadre controlling authorities to send names of officers to fill up these posts. The department has now appealed once again that the names of willing officers who are empanelled to hold joint secretary or equivalent posts should be recommended for filling up the UIDAI’s DDG posts. Over a month ago, the government sent a reminder to cadre controlling authorities about vacancies at the level of assistant director generals.
The DoPT’s current message has been marked to home secretary GK Pillai, secretary of environment and forests Vijay Sharma and other cadre controlling authorities of group A officers.
Babus in Demand: 6 posts of executive directors up for grabs in NHAI
The DoPT has written to all chief secretaries to recommend names of officers for filling up six vacancies in National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). According to the DoPT’s letter dated January 19, 2010, the vacancies at the level of joint secretaries (Pay band of Rs 37400-67000, PB 4, and grade pay of Rs 10,000) have arisen at Kolkata, Lucknow, Guwahati, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Bhopal. The nominations should reach in four weeks beginning January 19, 2010.
Action and Appointments
a) The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved in-situ elevation of S Manoharan, a 1975 batch Assam cadre IAS, presently additional secretary in the ministry of water resources, as special secretary in the same ministry with effect from July 31, 2009
b) The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of SK Srivastava, a 1978 batch Assam cadre IAS, presently holding the post of additional secretary in the ministry of labour and employment of in-situ elevation basis, as additional secretary in the same ministry in the vacancy of S Krishnan, a 1975 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS.
c) KS Money, a 1976 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS, presently member (administration) in National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has been appointed as Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission, in the rank and pay of secretary in place of AK Jain, a 1973 batch West Bengal cadre IAS who has retired recently.

8 comments:

  1. Hi I feel the approach has to change to attract talent.There are many candidates at JS level competent enough to face the challenges at UIDAI,given an opportunity to me i would love to headhunt these guys.

    Simple suggestion to DOPT is change the approach from transactional to emotional in other words its not Personnel dept its HR Development & Management.

    Have an open forum to air your employees views & interest move away from forced transfers & deputation.

    Use the Pull theory not the push.

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  2. So far as I know, even if someone is recruited from outside the government, he is to be paid at par with the government officials. Not necessarily, he can ask for his market value. That probably compels Mr Nilekani to scout for talents within the government. But many government officers are not so excited about joining UIDAI because no one is sure what lies ahead in terms of prospects.

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  3. This interesting story reminds us of KJ Alphonse, the crusader against corruption. The bureaucrat-turned legislator played the role of Kerala CM in a Malayalam film Kodaraam..

    JK

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  4. If govt. wants attract talent, make open selection without restricting the eligibility to a certain level. There are many talen at Section officer or Under secretary level.

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  5. Nilakeni should understand by this time how the Government works, how the so called decision makers work, their interests, their willingness to support government and policies. They are just show figures, most of them, trying to command actual work force

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  6. why are senior government officers who have recently retired from senior post not eligible for this post?

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  7. India is country of babus even in technical fields. Nandennilakani should revert to professionals with powers given for executing the job.

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  8. The offer is not dissiminated properly.If UIDIA wants,I'll join to assist Mr Nilekani in this noble endeavour.I'm a gp A officer for 28 years,a Ph D,good at numbers & cmptr literate.
    drpurnapatnaik@gmail.com

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