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| New Air India chief Pradeep Singh Kharola |
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| Lohani |
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| Rohit Nandan |
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| Who can do the magic? |
NOW, bureaucrats are under pressure to disclose their assets under the Right To Information Act (RTI). After agreeing to disclose file notings which civil servants successfully blocked for quite sometime, they may have to make public their total assets, a norm which is being routinely practised by politicians. Significantly, what's still hot in public domain is a debate on whether judges should disclose their assets or not. Senior bureaucrats in the government of India may participate in a DoPT-initiated meeting on November 3, 2009 in New Delhi to discuss the matter, a leading national daily reported on Sunday.
The paper further indicated that bureaucrats would oppose such a disclosure and would make a strong case for it. In fact, the RTI has turned out to be the biggest challenge for bureaucrats, and if the recent case of CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat's gathering of information from a meeting of officials is any indication, the instrument could be repeatedly used by politicians for gathering information on officers.
The Central Information Commission (CIC) found a number of officers guilty and imposed penalty in more than 200 RTI cases, minister of state in the ministry of personnel, public grievances & pensions Prithviraj Chavan said in Lok Sabha on July 29, 2009. Most cases, however, are related to delay in furnishing information. The Commission received 18,803 complaints and appeals during the period 2005-06 to 2007-08.
A recent RTI application also revealed how the definition of family was expanded over the years for the purpose of getting free Air India tickets to its CMD. The RTI findings further revealed the number of free tickets availed by some of the previous Air India chiefs too.
Read: RTI unearths no of free tickets doled out to Air India CMD’s family (October 5, 2009)
India's CEC to meet Bhutanese politicians & officials
The Chief Election Commissioner of India Navin B Chawla is leaving New Delhi on Monday on a four-day official visit to Bhutan mainly to discuss bilateral issues regarding election management. Apart from calling on Prime Minister of Bhutan Jigmi Y Thinley, the CEC will meet regional election officials of the country. India and Bhutan have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of Cooperation in the field of electoral management and administration that was signed in May 2006. Bhutan held its first parliamentary elections about a year ago and enacted its constitution.
MANY stranded Air India passengers including bureaucrats of various ranks had to board trains to continue their journey on Tuesday as India’s national carrier was severely disrupted thanks to the ongoing strike by senior pilots beginning Saturday last. In fact, many senior government employees who by rules had to take Air India to avail of LTC claims for their vacation virtually hit the air-pockets because of the sudden development in Air India.
Significantly, Indian Railways swung into action and set up train passenger reservation counters and ‘May I Help You’ booths at all important airports throughout the country on Tuesday for the convenience of stranded passengers who want to travel by trains.
What’s more, zonal railways were asked to coordinate with airline officials to facilitate the movement of stranded passengers for using train travel option. Stranded passengers were asked to contact the nearest passenger reservation centres or visit the website http://www.irctc.co.in for e-ticket.
Railways minister Mamata Banerjee further stepped in to bail out Air passengers by announcing that additional coaches could also be tagged on to superfast trains to carry the passengers. Also, the railways would run special trains from Wednesday to carry the air passengers from Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Bangalore to their respective destinations.
She also asked union minister of state for shipping Mukul Roy to run an additional service of the Shipping Corporation of India on Wednesday to bring back the air passengers stranded in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Meanwhile, it was a tough day for senior civil aviation officials including secretary M Madhavan Nambiar and Director General of DGCA who on Tuesday met the representatives of all the airlines to ensure that passengers traveling by Air India had to undergo minimum inconvenience due to cancellation, re-routing and merging of Air India flights. Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav is also an IAS of 1978 batch.
Lt Gen Badhani takes over as DG Border Roads Lieutenant General M C Badhani took over as the 20th Director General Border Roads in place of Lieutenant General A K Nanda. The BRO, which was established in 1960, has earned the reputation of being the only road construction agency to maintain roads in difficult and inhospitable terrain and climate. An alumnus of National Defence Academy Khadakvasla, Pune, Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, College of Defence Management, Secunderabad and National Defence College, New Delhi, Lieutenant General Badhani had an illustrious service in the Army for 38 years.
IF YOU are an Indian babu, you have reasons to cheer about. Reigning in bureaucrats is next to impossible, even globally.
In fact, Japan’s new political party which made an electoral promise that it would curtail powers of bureaucrats in the country suffered a major setback in its first attempt to reign in bureaucrats.
A few days after the country’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) announced a total ban on press briefings by bureaucrats, the government now backtracked and reportedly said that bureaucrats would now be allowed to hold news conferences with permission from their ministers, according to media reports published by Kyodo News which were given wide publicity by western media.
According to reports, the ban, which was meant to empower cabinet ministers under the new government, resulted in cancellation of a number of news briefings by important bureaucrats such as Japan’s ambassador to US.
But the government finally softened its stand and allowed bureaucrats to hold press meets once permission was obtained from cabinet ministers. All vice ministers of Japan’s ministries are, in fact, bureaucrats who are in a way equivalent to secretaries to government of India.
Read
Imagine secretary Pillai or Chawla debarred from briefing press; but new Japanese... (Sep 17, 2009)
No high profile positions after retirement (Sep 3, 2009)
Check before you land up in airport; Air India strike continues despite PMO’s intervention If you are taking a flight for official reason, or even for LTC purpose in the next couple of days, you need to double-check whether your Air India flight will take off at all or not. The crisis in Air India was not resolved till Monday midnight as agitating pilots remained firm on their stand of no flying till the cut in their incentive pay package was revoked. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) intervened on Monday night urging the civil aviation ministry to ensure “speedy resolution” of the crisis. The strike entered the third day on Monday, forcing cancellation of at least 14 flights. These directly impact bureaucrats as they have to travel through the national carrier alone. Read A spoilsport for bureaucrats’ vacation (Sep 26, 2009)
CALL them foreign babus who presented their credentials to President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil. Yes, seven envoys presented their credentials to the Prez at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Thursday.
The envoys are Javier Manuel Paulinich Velarde, the Ambassador of Peru, Peter Joseph Noozhumurry Varghese, the High Commissioner of Australia, Ms Nafsika Chr Krousti, the High Commissioner of Cyprus, Terhi Hakala, the Ambassador of Finland, Janez Premoze, the Ambassador of Slovenia, Adli Shaban Hassan Sadeq, the Ambassador of Palestine and Sami Mohammad SM Al-Sulaiman, the Ambassador of Kuwait.
In her interaction with the envoys who babu blogger likes to call as foreign babus, the President welcomed them to India and conveyed India’s desire to intensify bilateral relations with their countries. The President also said that the international community should work collectively to combat terrorism as it hampers peace and harmony in societies and adversely impacts the process of creating prosperity. Referring to the global financial crises, the President emphasized the need for reform in international financial institutions.
The credential presentation ceremony was attended by the senior members of the missions, senior officials of the ministry of external affairs and Rashtrapati Bhavan.
In picture: High commissioner-designate of Cyprus, Nafsika Chr Krousti presented her credentials to the President, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on September 24, 2009.
Post comment on whether it’s right to call envoys from other countries working in India as foreign babus, and Indian Foreign Service officers as Global Indian babus?
Action & Appointments AS MANY as 325 candidates selected as assistant commandants of Central Police Forces. The result of the Central Police Forces (Assistant Commandants) Examination, 2008, held by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has been announced. A total of 325 candidates have been recommended for appointment which include 145 General, 113 Other Backward Classes, 48 Scheduled Castes and 19 Scheduled Tribes candidates. These services include Border Security Force; Central Reserve Police Force; Indo-Tibetan Border Police; Sashastra Seema Bal, and the appointment will be made according to number of vacancies available in each service.
Business of aisle and window seats Many Indian bureaucrats are now placing special request to Air India for getting front seats of the economy class or at least for a window or an aisle seat, and definitely not a middle seat. Hurt by the austerity drive of the government which is applicable to their political masters as well, bureaucrats who are otherwise entitled for business class flights are now fully satisfied with grabbing an aisle seat if not one on the front row of the economy class!
IN A major U-turn in just three months, the Indian government said on Wednesday that it would reimburse Leave Travel Concession (LTC) claims of its employees traveling by air only if they travel economy class. That means bureaucrats planning to take their families out on a business class flight for the annual vacation need to downgrade their ticket to the economy class to get it reimbursed.
“Bureaucrats availing of the LTC by government servants will be restricted to the cost of travel by the economy class, irrespective of entitlement, with immediate effect” the new directive said.
Significantly, the government had recently said that it would reimburse its employees for LTC only of they travel Air India, in an apparent move to bail out the cash strapped government carrier. For the last few years, the government employees preferred to fly Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines during their annual vacation and got it reimbursed by the LTC scheme.
So, babu blogger’s choice of picture today symbolizes an Indian bureaucrat’s pipedream, at least for now.
Read: “Bureaucrats allowed to fly again in business class for LTC” posted on June 9, 2009. Also read, “Officials must travel by Air India to claim LTC, clarifies DoPT” posted on July 28, 2009.
You have a chance to be “field officers”, quite literally
Wish to join the Central Secretariat Cricket team? Here’s a chance to be actually on field. The Central Civil Services Cultural and Sports Board will hold selection trials to select the Central Secretarial cricket team for the year 2009-2010 on September 24 and 25 at the Board’s cricket ground at Vinay Marg, New Delhi. If you are a Central government employees working with any ministry or department, and have a feeling that there is a Dhoni and Yuvraj in you, just register your name with Amar Jeet Singh at Board’s cricket ground at Vinay Marg by September 22, 2009.
IF YOU are a government babu planning your tour with your family by availing Leave Travel Concession (LTC) scheme, forget in-flight enjoyment of Jet Airways or Kingfisher Airlines this time. The government has clarified that its earlier order issued on July 13, 2009, that officials had to take Air India both for their domestic and international tours, would be applicable for LTC as well, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) said.
The matter whether the earlier order of air travel only by Air India was referred to the department of expenditure under the ministry of finance, it was decided after a wide consultation that Air India, which lost whopping Rs 5,000 cr last financial year, should get the traffic of government employees availing the LTC.
The earlier order said that if travel destinations are not connected by Air India, the officials may travel by Air India to the closest point beyond which they may utilize the services of another airline which again should preferably be an alliance partner of Air India.
In fact, a restructuring plan of Air India needs an urgent infusion of Rs 20,000 crore to tide over its worst ever financial crisis. The annual wage bill of the national carrier is about Rs 3,100 cr.
BoI announcement on 'Spotting The Babuz'
Call them the Babuz. The word is coined to describe the most powerful within the power corridors. Babu Blogger is soon coming out with a list of Babuz, or the most powerful bureaucrats in the country based on feedback from a number of people in power centres including civil servants and politicians. If you have any name in mind and reasons for his nomination, kindly mail it to babu.blogger1@gmail.com Your identity would not be revealed.