4 new appointments; repatriation of 1982 batch IAS Amitabh Verma to Bihar; and full list of 32 JS vacancies

REPATRIATED: Verma

ON FRIDAY, the Centre announced the repatriation of 1982 batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, serving as chairman of Inland Waterways Authority of India under the ministry of shipping, to his parent cadre Bihar “with immediate effect”. And the government found his replacement: 1983 batch AGMUT cadre IAS Ms Nutan Guha Biswas. Meanwhile, there are 32 joint secretary-level vacancies at the Centre. Here below are the details of new appointments, repatriation and full list of 32 JS vacancies:

Know Your Babu: Inland Waterways Authority of India’s new chairman Amitabh Verma

BIHAR cadre IAS of 1982 batch, Amitabh Verma will be the new chairman of Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), a post that lied vacant after its chief Vishwapati Trivedi was elevated as Union shipping secretary. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has cleared the name of Verma who had earlier worked as joint secretary in financial services department during UPA-I. Incidentally, Verma had worked under Vinod Rai who…

Dramatic Move: Actor IAS V Venu as a manipulative contractor

IMAGINE an IAS officer taking a dramatic move of donning the role of a shrewd contractor who tries to manipulate bureaucracy and politics! During the recent Bharat Rang Mahotsav, a theatre festival organized by the National School of Drama in New Delhi, Kerala’s tourism secretary Dr V Venu, a 1990 batch IAS, donned that role of a manipulative contractor as he acted in a Malayalam play ‘Palangal’, (bridges), an adaptation of the work of famous poet K Ayyappa Panicker.

Directed by D Reghoothaman and staged by Abhinaya theatres, Thiruvananthapuram, ‘Palangal’ depicts the events that surround the proposed construction of a bridge where Dr Venu came to the centrestage, literally.

The bureaucrat, who studied medicine surgery before getting into IAS, told media that he was an actor during the college days, but discontinued his passion thanks to the mounting work pressure. But he chose to revive his talent on stage once he joined the culture department in the state about three years ago. He was also in the Central deputation and worked as deputy secretary in the ministry of tourism and culture in 2003-04. Later, he was promoted to a director level post, deputy director general, in the ministry of tourism in New Delhi.

Thanks to his personal interest in acting, Dr Venu has initiated a programme under which a number of Kerala’s award-winning theatre directors performed plays in UK, South Korea, Japan and Russia recently.

So will the IAS-cum-actor stage a play for the global audience too, for promoting tourism in the God’s own country?

If you know a bureaucrat who has a private passion whether in the realm of music, theatre, art, or anything else, kindly write to babu.blogger1@gmail.com

11 senior officials transferred in Bihar

In a major reshuffle in bureaucracy in Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar has transferred 11 senior bureaucrats, including principal secretary Girish Shankar. State’s urban development and housing principal secretary Afzal Amanullah will now hold the important post of a cabinet coordination. Amitabh Verma, principal secretary to the animal husbandry department, will be given additional charge of cooperative department, whereas R K Khandelwal will be secretary to the revenue department.

Babus Under Check: Government finally gives clarification on disclosure of file noting by bureaucrats under RTI

THE government has said that file noting by civil servants can be disclosed with an exception of a few items which are still exempted under section 8 of the RTI Act. The clarification came after a major showdown between the personnel ministry and Central Information Commission (CIC) for quite sometime. Various government ministries and departments sought clarification from the personnel ministry after CIC chief Wajahat Habibullah summoned two officers --- joint secretary S K Sarkar and deputy secretary Anuradha Chagti --- to explain why they should not be prosecuted under RTI provisions as the department of personnel and training (DoPT) refused to correct the information in its website that file noting was not part of information that could be disclosed under the RTI. According to media reports published earlier, CIC even claimed that erring officials could even face jail terms. In fact, CIC is one of the organizations that come under DoPT.

Extension & Appointments A) Joint secretary in the department of financial services Amitabh Verma, a 1982 batch Bihar cadre IAS, has been given an extension of central deputation for a further period of three months upto September 18, 2009. B) Tuhin Kanta Pandey, a 1987 batch Orissa cadre IAS, as been appointed for a period of five years as deputy director general, in the Unique Identification Authority of India under the Planning Commission, in the pay band of Rs 37400-67000 (PB 4), with a grade pay of Rs 10,000. The posting will be at the level of a joint secretary at the Centre. C) Secretary of the department of agriculture and cooperation under the ministry of agriculture T Nanda Kumar, will hold additional charge of the post of secretary, department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries, ministry of agriculture with immediate effect. Mr Kumar is a 1972 batch Jharkhand cadre IAS.

Unified Commanders conference today

A two-day-long Unified Commanders Conference beginning in New Delhi on Thursday will chalk out the possibility of development of integrated war fighting capability, a government release said on Wednesday. It will deliberate upon various issues relating to Services capabilities to meet the security challenges faced by the nation. To be inaugurated by defence minister AK Antony, the conference will be attended by the chairman chiefs of staff committee Admiral Sureesh Mehta, chief of air staff Air Chief Marshal PV Naik and Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor, Air Marshal SC Mukul, CIDS, C-in-Cs of Andaman & Nicobar Command and heads of various tri-Services training Institutions such as Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, College of Defence Management, Secunderabad and National Defence Academy, Pune.