Ex-Election Commissioners meet the incumbents; the veterans say, there’s a need to control hate speeches during campaigns

NINE former Election Commissioners on Monday suggested that there was an urgent need to control hate speeches in larger public interest. In a roundtable held in New Delhi and participated by present Election Commissioners and the veterans — the former ECs, MS Gill, JM Lyngdoh, TS.Krishna Murthy, BB Tandon, Dr SY Quraishi, VS Sampath, HR Bramha, Dr Nasim Zaidi and GVG Krishnamurty — it was deliberated on how hate speeches during the campaigns often…

Bihar Poll: Election Commission to deploy IPS officers as police observers; PSU officials to be roped in as micro observers

Election Commissioners while announcing Bihar poll dates on September 9

THE Election Commission of India has planned to deploy some IPS officers as police observers at the district level during the forthcoming Bihar poll, the dates of which were announced on Wednesday. The state having 243 assembly constituencies will go to polls in five phases starting from...

An untold story of new Election Commissioner OP Rawat: How he cornered MP’s liquor lobby and raised revenues

FIRST, the basic news. Om Prakash Rawat, 1977 batch retired IAS of Madhya Pradesh cadre, was on Thursday appointed as Election Commissioner ahead of crucial Bihar assembly polls. With Rawat’s appointment, the Election Commission has the full team -- Naseem Zaidi as Chief Election Commissioner and Achal Kumar Joti as the other Election Commissioner. Before giving details about Rawat’s career in IAS, BoI here picks out one of several success stories that he had in his three and half decades-long career as an Indian Administrative Service officer. It was January 2004. Rawat was then the...

Why such a large-scale IAS, IPS transfer ahead of Bihar assembly poll? BJP’s state unit questions, complains

BIHAR elections are yet to take off officially, but the heat is already on. A delegation led by the Opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) met Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar in Patna on Wednesday. The reason: to lodge a strong protest against large-scale transfer of IAS and IPS officers ahead of the state assembly polls. The delegation demanded that those IAS and IPS officers who have served…

Know Your Babu: CEC Harishankar Brahma, his tech priorities, and views on doubtful voters

Taking Charge: New CEC Brahma

LAST week, 1975-batch former IAS from Andhra Pradesh cadre Harishankar Bramha took charge as India’s 19th Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) succeeding VS Sampath, also a former IAS from Andhra Pradesh cadre. Brahma, who is the second person from the North-East to become CEC after JM Lyngdoh, originally hails from…

EC-Mamata Row: Who are the IAS, IPS officers Banerjee agrees to transfer, “only for time being”?

THERE is nothing unusual in Election Commission’s transfer-dictate to bureaucrats in states. But West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s  threatening on Monday not to follow the EC order would have created an unprecedented constitutional crisis which was averted only after Didi blinked on the next day and agreed to follow the poll panel’s order. Her face-saver: transfers would be made "only for the time being”. First, here are the names of the bureaucrats who Banerjee had initially refused to…

Corridor’s Tridev on This Poll Season: Meet election commissioners Sampath, Brahma and Zaidi

Brahma (left), Sampath and Zaidi (right)

FOR the next one and half months, these three former bureaucrats -- Veeravalli Sundaram Sampath, Harishankar Brahma and Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi will be India’s most powerful babus, as the country is witnessing a 9-phase-long general election beginning April 7 in which as many as 9,30,000 polling stations have been arranged for whopping 814 million voters. All these three election commissioners, Sampath being the chief election commissioner, are former IAS and ex-secretaries to the…

Ex-IAS Quraishi for lowering age of adulthood, lists out 5 causes of early puberty

FORMER Chief Election Commissioner of India and 1971 batch retired IAS Dr SY Quraishi has strongly advocated lowering of age of adulthood to 16 years as “puberty age has dropped significantly”. In social networking site Twitter, Quraishi on Friday gave five reasons why today’s teens have early puberty:

Jaspal Bhatti as poll brand ambassador; how an ex-IAS remembers him

Bhatti with wife

“Hope in swarg, mahaul theek hai! Will miss you Jaspal Bhatti.” This is what former IAS and ex-chief election commissioner Shahabuddin Yaqoob Quraishi wrote in a social networking site after the tragic news broke out that satirist Jaspal Bhatti died in a car accident in Punjab on Thursday morning. Everyone remembers Bhatti for his cult comedies such as Ulta Pulta and Flop Show, but BoI here reproduces…

Rights or Wrong: Didi’s mamata for West Bengal forces Rail files to land up in Kolkata

WHO will deny that railway minister Mamata Banerjee has been out of the track when it comes to executing work in Rail Bhawan? From the day she took charge as the railway minister, incidentally in Kolkata rather than Delhi, she has been camping more in West Bengal eying the hot seat in Writers Building. And there were a number of occasion, senior officials have flown to Kolkata carrying official files for clearances.
The Indian railways, for the first time, has officially accepted that files were indeed carried to Kolkata for Banerjee to consider though it played down the events saying it was done only in emergency cases. “It is clarified that hardly ever files have been carried to Kolkata for clearing from the Railway Minister, except in a few emergency cases,” said an official statement from the spokesperson clarifying the news item related to expenditure on movement of official files published in a section of media on August 23, 2010. It has further termed the news item “erroneous” which said that the railways spent around Rs11 lakhs in one year for sending file-carrying officials to Kolkata!

What make retired NE bureaucrats shine?

Harishankar Brahma, a 1975 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS and former power secretary, has been appointed as an Election Commissioner. That he belongs to ST and North East is believed to have helped him piping many other bureaucrat contenders for this coveted post. Brahma is the second person from the North East after JM Lyngdoh, who retired as Chief Election Commissioner in 2004, to become Election Commissioner. A former IPS officer RS Mushahary was made Governor of Meghalaya by the UPA government.

Action and Appointments

The three-day DGPs/IGPs conference, organized by the Intelligence Bureau will be held in New Delhi from Wednesday. It will be inaugurated by the Union home minister P Chidambaram. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will address the conference on Thursday. 

Cabinet secretary contender M Ramachandran could be made Election Commissioner of India

URBAN development secretary and 1972 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS, M Ramachandran, who missed the bus to become the country’s top bureaucrat, may now be considered for the post of Election Commissioner that will be vacant after Chief Election Commission and 1969 batch retired IAS Navin Chawla retires in July this year, and Election Commissioner Dr SY Quraishi, a 1971 batch retired IAS, possibly takes over as CEC, a person close to the development said.

In fact, the second one-year extension of current cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar dashed the hopes of all 1972 and 1973 batch IAS officers to grab the top bureaucrat’s post, and leading the pack was none other than Dr Ramachandran. Though no one questions the efficiency and integrity of Mr Chandrasekhar, there has been a general discontentment and tension among top IAS officers about the trend set by Mr Chandrasekhar’s four-year term for a post that by rules has a two-year-long tenure.

However, if Mr Ramachandran who retires in the end of this month, gets the post of Election Commissioner, he will have almost a five-year term, apart from having a chance of becoming the Chief Election Commissioner at a later stage. The Election Commissioners including the Chief Election Commissioner retire at the age of 65.

Also, there are speculations that another 1972 batch IAS and tourism secretary, Sujit Banerjee, could get an extension till the Commonwealth Games are over. Mr Banerjee retires in July this year.

Retired CBDT and CBEC Members included in Nilekani-led Advisory Group

The Technical Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP), under the chairmanship of Nandan Nilekani, will have SS Khan, former member, CBDT and PRV Ramanan, former member, CBEC as its members. The other members will be CB Bhave, chairman SEBI, R Chandrasekhar, secretary, department of IT, Dhirendra Swarup, former chairman PFRDA and Dr Nachiket Mor, president, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth.

Action and Appointments

a) The extension of tenure of VK Sadhu, a 1976 batch CSS and Principal Commissioner (joint secretary level), of Delhi Development Authority upto December 31, 2011, has been approved.

b) The ACC has not approved the proposal for the appointment of Raghava Chandra, a 1982 batch MP cadre IAS as joint secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), in place of Kumar Sanjay Krishna, a 1985 batch Assam cadre IAS who is now a principal secretary in the cadre.

c) The proposal of the ministry of defence for extension of Central deputation tenure of T Ramachandru, a 1984 batch Orissa cadre IAS for a period of three months upto September 12, 2010, has been approved.

d) Arun Kumar Bal, a 1986 batch West Bengal cadre IAS has been appointed as joint secretary in the department of defence.