INCOME tax officials dealing with former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda regarding a case of an alleged involvement in illegal transactions worth over Rs 2,000 crore, are given special instruction by the North Block to be extremely polite and clam while conducting searches and asking questions to the politician. Also, tax officials have been asked to address Mr Koda, now an independent MP from Jharkhand, as "Koda sir" all the time. In fact, it's mandatory for bureaucrats to call political leaders as "sir" though it's not practised all the time. (Picture: Koda with model and actress Koena Mitra who was Jharkhand's brand ambassador)
In fact, over 400 I-T officials were deployed in the biggest ever search operation in a politician's premises, and it was done at the stewardship of Sudhir Chandra, Member (Investigation) of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. Despite handling sensitive issues in CBDT, Mr Chandra always keeps the green light outside his cabin on, and hardly refuses anyone from meeting him.
Read: North Block’s top taxman keeps his door-light on a green mode (July 23, 2009).
Also, I-T officials around the country are now being encouraged to be brave, and discharge duties fearlessly and without any political pressure.
On October 9, the ED first lodged a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Mr Koda and three former ministers Kamlesh Singh, Bhanu Pratap Shahi and Bandhu Tirkey and his associates Sinha and Chaudhary.
Action & Appointments
a) B S Parsheera, a 1974 batch AP cadre IAS, presently specical secretary in the ministry of environment and forests, as secretary, department of official language in the ministry of home affairs in place of Pradeep Kumar, a 1973 batch UP cadre IAS on his retirement on 31st October, 2009.
b) Ms Anshu Vaish a 1975 batch MP cadre IAS, presently secretary in the department of school education and literacy in the ministry of human resource development will hold additional charge of the post of secretary, department of higher education in the ministry of human resource development for a period of three months with effect from 1st November 2009 or untill further orders.
BoI extraa...What's in a confidential circular?
Link of a confidential DoPT circular placed in the official website