Mahendra Pratap Mall is new CMD of IRCTC; 1993 batch IRSEE Vinit Kumar made chairman of Kolkata Port Trust

Mahendra Pratap Mall, presently director (finance) in IRCTC, will be the new CMD of #IRCTC for five years. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Tuesday gave its nod to the proposal of Indian Railways to elevate Mall as the new chief of the rail PSU. The ACC on Tuesday also approved the appointment of Alok Tripathi, a 1999 batch Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer, as executive director of Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA), New Delhi till October 4, 2019. Another railway officer — Vinit Kumar, a 1993 batch IRSEE — has been appointed as…

Centre issues a clarification on where to book air tickets for LTC journeys

THE Centre has issued a fresh clarification about the procedure for booking air-tickets for LTC journeys after it has observed that various ministries and departments continue to send references to DoPT seeking relaxation regarding the booking of air tickets for the purpose of LTC from unauthorized travel agents. The recent office memorandum reminds an earlier order (June 19, 2014), where it was said that the government employees need to book air tickets directly from the…

If you can’t buy tickets from Air India site, then only go to Balmer Lawrie or IRCTC, Govt tells LTC seekers

THE government employees going on a vacation and availing leave travel concession (LTC) can buy tickets from web-portal of government-authorized travel agents, namely Balmer Lawrie and Company Ltd., Ashok Travels and Tours and IRCTC, but the DoPT in an office memorandum (OM) dated September 24, 2014, said it in clear terms that those agencies should not be…

IRCTC Director: Railway officer Kalita sings, acts & conducts quiz shows

NEXT time you travel in Rajdhani Express and spot some kind of innovation in breakfast or dinner, you should know who to thank. On the contrary, if you find any deterioration in the catering service, you must know who to blame for it. He is a 1982 batch Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer,...

Politicians, bureaucrats lose out to Katrina Kaif; rail babus get consolation

THE jury is out, and netas and babus are the combined losers. The netizens in India are not so excited about any politicians and bureaucrats though people in corridors of power are continuing to hog the limelight in electronic and print media across the country. According to annual list called “Zeitgeist 2010” based on the aggregation of billions of search queries people typed into Google this year, Lalit Modi, Katrina Kaif and Sachin Tendulkar are some of the fastest rising people in India whereas none of the bureaucrats or more so no politicians have figured in the list of top 10 fastest rising people or most popular keywords. The list brought out by Google captures the spirit of 2010 globally.

The only consolation prize, however, goes to the rail and tourism babus as the IRCTC (railway ticket booking) continues to top the charts of the year-on-year fastest rising keywords in India. The IRCTC is also one of the top 10 most popular keywords for Indian netizens alongside songs, gmail, google, nokia etc. The top five most popular brands in India, according to Zeitgeist 2010 list, are Nokia, Samsung, Airtel, Micromax

and Dell. In this season of scams, “how to bribe” has not figured in Top 10 most popular “how to”. Significantly, more Indians in 2010 googled “how to impress a girl” and “how to tie a tie” than “how to make money”.

Any clue about how many googled “babus”?

Action and Appointments

a) Indian Air Force (IAF) got a new batch of officers with 171 newly commissioned Flying Officers graduating from the Air Force Academy (AFA), at Dundigal near Hyderabad, on Saturday. Air Chief Marshal PV Naik reviewed the combined graduation parade and awarded President’s Commission to the graduating Flight Cadets that included 39 women Flight Cadets. Four Indian Navy officers and one Indian Coast Guard officer also received their flying brevet (Wings) at the graduation parade from the Air Chief.

b) A CID probe has been ordered to look into an alleged land-grab in Navi Mumbai by senior bureaucrats. A housing society that came into question has accommodated more than 20 IAS officers as members. According to the allegation, the bureaucrat-dominated housing society managed to get the piece of land just for Rs 4.43 crore against its market value of over Rs20 crore.

Central government employees now allowed to reimburse IRCTC tour packages for LTC holidays

FLYING to Goa for a holiday with your family during this new year eve! Your airfare along with rail and road fare will be reimbursed under leave travel concession (LTC) provided you choose a package offered by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a government of India undertaking under the ministry of railways. In fact, the finance ministry has now allowed LTC packages of IRCTC, including the component of air travel, to be reimbursed for Central government employees. Significantly, the government had earlier issued a number of circulars changing its stand on LTC reimbursement for government employees when it launched an austerity drive. The business class travel was no longer to be eligible for reimbursement, and LTC air travel had to be done by Air India alone. The IRCTC has now been offering tour packages involving air travel in the sectors like Delhi - Leh, Delhi - Srinagar, Jaipur -Goa, Calcutta - Port Blair etc. which could now be availed of by government employees as well. Actual DoPT office memo, dated December 2, 2009 Earlier Story: Officials must travel by Air India to claim LTC (July 28, 2009) Central PSUs must pay salaries out of their own resources Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) are expected to pay the wages, salaries and statutory dues to their employees regularly out of their own resources, Arun Yadav, minister of state for heavy industries and public enterprises stated in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. It was however mentioned that the government provides financial assistance by way of non-plan loans to certain CPSEs to supplement their efforts for payment of wages and salaries and statutory dues when they are unable to generate required resources. In respect of 11 CPSEs under department of heavy industry, total amount outstanding as on November 30, 2009 for payment to employees is Rs 129.58 crore. The heavy industry ministry has been giving budgetary support in the form of loan to CPSEs under its control for payment of salary/wages and statutory dues. The salary and statutory dues to such CPSEs have been paid upto June, 2009. Global Corridors: UK Athletics chief accuses London bureaucrats Charles van Commenee, Britain’s head coach for athletics, has recently accused London bureaucrats of causing delays that threaten chances of Olympic medals in 2012. Van Commenee further said that Britain’s elite athletes were being put at risk by eight months of prevarication by local authority planners as changes are being made to the Lee Valley training centre in north London where athletes will train before and during the Games. Any thought for Commonwealth Games, 2010 athletes?