Financial services secretary Rajiv Kumar is on leave; 2 North Block secretaries given additional charge

THE union finance ministry will see some adhoc arrangements when the secretary of the department of financial services, Rajiv Kumar, is on leave for 18 days, according to a DoPT order issued on Thursday. The additional charge of the post of secretary, department of financial services, has been bestowed on Subhash Chandra Garg, 1983 batch Rajasthan cadre lAS, for a period between November 29 and December 16 when incumbent secretary and 1984 batch Jharkhand cadre IAS Rajiv Kumar, is on leave. But Garg, secretary of the department of economic affairs (DEA), will also be on an official tour between November 29 and December 2, and hence, during that tour period,…

72 revenue officers dismissed, 33 retired prematurely; minister Jayant Sinha terms it a "strict action" against non-performers

CENTRE has begun to take strict action against “defaulting and non-performing revenue officials”. After the news broke about premature retirement of as many as 33 revenue officers including seven from the coveted Indian Revenue Service and also dismissal of 72 others including six from Group A service, minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha posted the following message in Twitter, claiming that it’s for the first time such a strict action was taken. He said:

Missing Indian government officer is believed to be in USA; Govt places advertisement to trace the North Block man

THE Indian government has finally resorted to placing an advertisement in national newspapers to locate A K Lal, a research officer in the department of economic affairs (DEA) under the ministry of finance who has been missing for about 10 years now. After being charge-sheeted on May 8, 2009, a letter was sent to two addresses, one at D-44, Chander Nagar, Ghaziabad, and another in the USA asking him to report to Room No 58, department of economic affairs in New Delhi’s North Block within 10 days of the issue of the press note. It’s now believed that the missing officer, who has been absenting himself unauthorized from August 30, 1995, is somewhere in the USA as his charge-sheet sent to his Ghaziabad address was received undelivered with the remark from the postal department that “there is no house numbered as D-44 Chander Nagar. Now, an inquiry officer and a presenting officer have been appointed to conduct an enquiry about the missing finance ministry official.

Babus under check: File notings to be in public domain; officials may face jail term

THE government officials need to be much more careful in file notings as those are already in public scrutiny under the RTI. Central Information Commission chief Wajahat Habibullah’s summoning of DoPT joint secretary S K Sarkar and deputy secretary Anuradha Chagti on June 17 to explain why they should not be prosecuted under RTI provisions, is a case in point. According to reports in a leading newspaper, the erring officials could also face a year in jail. In fact, DoPT refused to correct the information in its website that file notings were not part of information that could be disclosed under the RTI. The Supreme Court has already accepted the CIC’s ruling that file notings were not exempt from disclosure, said the media reports. If CIC becomes aggressive, as this case has demonstrated, the loopholes of the RTI may soon be plugged, leading to the disclosure of many facts which officers would not have like to be on public domain.

Govt’s Second Innings Bonanza: Take casual leave during LTC, encash 10 days of earn leaves Here’s a good piece of news for all government employees including the officers. Government servants will now be allowed to encash earned leave upto 10 days at the time of availing Leave Travel Concession (LTC) even if they don’t take leaves for a similar number of days, a DoPT circular dated June 3, 2009, clarified. That means even if an employee takes just four days off to avail of the LTC, that too casual leaves, he may claim encashment of 10 days of leaves. Earlier, the encashment was possible subject to the condition that earned leave of at least an equivalent duration is also availed of by the Government servants simultaneously. The DoPT received a number of references from various ministries to waive this condition citing practical problems faced by them as the facility of LTC was also admissible while availing Casual Leave, the circular further said. “The matter has been examined in this Department in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and it has now been decided to permit Government servants encashment of earned leave upto 10 days at the time of availing LTC without any linkage to the number of days and the nature of leave availed while proceeding on LTC,” the clarification said.