Former union minister Shashi Tharoor joins IAS "edge" debate; his comment makes him an instant hero among non-IAS officers

FORMER union minister and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s hard-hitting piece in DNA newspaper today, saying that the top posts in India cannot be the monopoly of the IAS, has made him an instant hero among officers belonging to non-IAS All India and Group "A" services. “Dr @ShashiTharoor, IRS Association conveys its gratitude to you for supporting a merit and competence based civil service for India,” the Indian Revenue Service Association has posted in Twitter. Indian Police Service Association too…

RIP Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor: Civil servants use Twitter to express grief and shock

AS THE news broke out on Friday night that Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Union minister Shashi Tharoor, was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in Delhi, micro-blogging site Twitter was flooded with messages expressing grief and shock. After all, Tharoors’ romance, marriage and troubles in private life --- all took place under the media spotlight, and Twitter became the platform for this modern romance that ended in a tragedy. Here are a few messages from Twitter-savvy civil servants on Sunanda Pushkar’s death:

Aam Ka Aadmi: Tharoor’s lone Tweet on bureaucrats

SHASHI Tharoor’s brush with power politics may have ended in a hurry, at least for time being, but his one-year-long political spell would always be remembered for his controversial but smart 140-character-long one liners. Mr Tharoor who had to resign from Dr Manmohan Singh’s government after his link to Kochi IPL team became apparent, might have tweeted on various aspects of work, life and fun in Delhi’s corridor of power, he incidentally tweeted the least about bureaucrats.

After scanning through his tweets ranging from diplomacy to eating mangoes, BoI found just one tweet on bureaucrats. On June 5, 2009, Tharoor tweeted, “Two more dinners! That intriguing Delhi mix of politicians, bureaucrats, media, + socialites.” Not a controversial tweet any which way!

But what remained non-controversial was his tweet on mangoes (June 9, 2009).

“Having lived abroad in places without Indian mangoes, have literally become “aam aadmi” this year, or at least “aam ka aadmi” – eat 6 a day!”

CBI’s big catch in Mumbai…

Investigating agency CBI arrested I-T additional commissioner Sumitra Banerjee and her husband Subrator in a corruption case, as it was found that the couple owns a sprawling property in Malaysia. Their immediate charge was accepting a bribe of Rs 1.70 crore from a builder to reduce his tax liability. CBI teams raided the Banerjees’ residence at suburban Chembur and recovered cash worth Rs 46 lakh and foreign currency worth Rs 10 lakh.

…And then a small fry

A government employee Rajeev Kumar was arrested by a vigilance team for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 at Sitarganj area of Udhamsingh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. He was demanding the bribe for transferring a land deed.

Action and Appointments

a) Ms Rajni Razdan, former secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, took the oath of office and secrecy as Member, Union Service Public Commission (UPSC) on Monday. The oath was administered by UPSC chairman Prof DP Agrawal. Ms Razdan was a 1973 batch Haryana cadre IAS.

b) ACC has approved the repatriation of Ms Rajwant Sandhu, a 1975 batch HP cadre IAS, and secretary, department of drinking water supply to her cadre from July 1, 2010.

c) Ms Kiran Dhingra, a 1975 batch UT cadre IAS and secretary, ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, will hold the additional charge of the post of secretary, ministry of tourism during the absence on leave of Sujit Banerjee, a 1972 batch UP cadre IAS from April 16, 2010 to April 25, 2010.

d) US Bhatia, a 1974 batch Orissa cadre IAS has been appointed as Ambassador, Permanent Mission of India, WTO, Geneva, on re-employment on contract basis for a period of three months after his retirement on April 30, 2010, in the rank and pay of secretary to the Government of India.

e) Jayant Dasgupta, a 1981 batch Bihar cadre IAS will be the new Ambassador, Permanent Mission of India, WTO, Geneva, for a period of three years on the completion of the tenure of US Bhatia July 31, 2010.

No need to travel by Air India to claim LTC under railway entitlement, clarifies DoPT

DOES a government officer need to travel by Air India alone if his travel expenses are to be reimbursed against Leave Travel Concession (LTC)? The government now says “No”.

In fact, the government has clarified that if you are entitled to reimburse your railway tickets for LTC, but you have instead traveled by air, you don’t necessarily travel by Air India.

The department of personnel and training (DoPT) in an office memorandum dated March 11, 2010, said that the restriction of travel by Air India only need not apply to non-entitled officers who travel by air and claim the LTC reimbursement by entitled class of rail. The office memo titled, “regulation of journeys by private airlines while availing Leave Travel Concessions” however made it clear that it would be applicable with effect from the issue of the office memo, and “past cases already settled will not be reopened”.

In July last year, the government issued an instruction saying that all air travel (including LTC), both domestic and international where the government of India bears the cost, the concerned official may travel by Air India only.

In a related development, the government may end restrictions of ministers and bureaucrats compulsorily travel only in economy class by March 31, --- a decision which resulted into junior external affairs minister Shashi Tharoor tweeting about his controversial “cattle class” comments. Though the ministers and bureaucrats have abided by the finance minister’s diktat resulting into a saving of Rs 2000 cr for the government, a few ministers raised the issue in a recent cabinet meeting.

DoPT OFFICE MEMO, dated March 11, 2010

Also Read

Officials must travel by Air India to claim LTC, clarifies DoPT
Govt says "No" to business travel for LTC reimbursement
A possible strike in Air India to play spoilsport for bureaucrats' vacation

Hey there! British bureaucrat issues guide on Twitter etiquette; any cue for Indian babus?

JUST recently Indian minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor landed up into a huge controversy for his tweets when he called economy class travel as "cattle class" after the government issued an advisory for the ministers not to fly business class as a part of austerity measure. Now, a British bureaucrat has published a guide to Twitter etiquette and strategy so that civil servants who are regularly using the popular microblogging service, Twitter, could follow some basic dos and don'ts. Yes, the Twitter can rock as this is being increasingly used by government departments, Members of Parliament etc. and it has the potential to deliver many benefits in support of the government's communications objectives, the British government guide said. But there's a warning! "Inappropriate content being published in error, such as... protectively marked, commercially or politically sensitive information... Require clearance of all tweets through nominated people in digital media team," the official guide said. (Courtesy: Tom Green from Oxford University, UK for alerting babu blogger) Hey there! babublogger is using Twitter. Check at http://twitter.com/babublogger No army officer receives gifts from American company No case relating to Army officers being obliged by gifts from American companies, has been brought to the knowledge of the government, defence minister AK Antony said in written reply in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has issued instructions to identify sensitive posts in various ministries or departments of the Union government, and asked those departments (under its advisory jurisdiction) to rotate officials working in sensitive posts to avoid development of vested interest by the people working on these posts. This information was given by the minister of state in the ministry of personnel, public grievances & pensions Prithviraj Chavan in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Action & Appointments a) Kiran Dhingra, a 1975 batch UT cadre IAS and secretary, ministry of housing & urban poverty alleviation, will hold additional charge of the post of secretary, ministry of urban development during the absence on leave of M Ramachandran, a 1972 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS from December 21, 2009 to January 8, 2010. b) Medithi Ravi Kanth, a 1986 batch Kerala cadre IAS has been appointed as joint secretary in the ministry of power for a period upto June 20, 2012, from the date of assumption of charge of the post, or until further orders. c) Harbhjajan Singh, a 1983 batch UP cadre IAS has been appointed as joint secretary in the department of heavy industry. d) R C Misra, a 1976 batch Orissa cadre IAS, presently special secretary and financial adviser in the department of information technology in the ministry of communications and information technology has been appointed as secretary in the department of administrative reforms & public grievances and department of pension & pensioners welfare in place of Ms Rajni Rajni, a 1973 batch Haryana cadre IAS.

LEG SPACE: Govt's austerity measures may make bureaucrats' lives miserable

THE government’s austerity measures have not only stripped off the luxury stay of external affairs minister S M Krishna and his junior minister Shashi Tharoor in Delhi’s five star hotels, but in fact will impact day-to-day lives of Indian bureaucrats too. babu blogger here makes an attempt to decipher fallouts of the office memo issued by expenditure secretary Sushama Nath, on lives of Indian babus.

Memo Says: In view of the current fiscal situation and that arising out of insufficient rain in large parts of the country, and the consequent pressure on government’s resources, there is need for further economy and rationalization of expenditure… It Means: Drought is a passionate subject and no bureaucrat in India will dare to lobby against the move. So, just accept it in the same way your private sector friends have come to terms with their salary cuts in the wake of global financial tsunami.

Memo Says: For the year 2009-10, every ministry/department shall effect a mandatory 10% cut in non-Plan expenditure under the heads: Domestic and foreign travel expenses, publications, professional services, advertising and publicity, office expenses, administrative expenses etc. It Means: You need to be “tight” virtually in every act of expenditure. Forget foreign junkets for a moment!

Memo Says: There will be a complete ban on holding of meetings and conferences at five star hotels. A 10% cut on the budgetary allocation for seminars and conferences shall be effected. It Means: Forget the luxury of attending seminars in comfort zones of five star environment. Try to adapt to old public hall culture.

Memo Says: No travel on government account by air will take place by first class. All domestic travel on government account by air will take place only by economy class, irrespective of the entitlement. It Means: This is the second shock in a row as you just forgot the luxury of Jet and Kingfishers’ business class trips thanks to mandatory air travel now only by Air India. Now, you can’t fly business class in Air India too!

Memo Says: The size of delegation and the duration of visit will be kept to the absolute minimum. It Means: Many low-rung officers will miss good tours and excellent hospitality breaking the monotony of 9 to 5 lifestyle.

Memo Says: Proposals for participation in study tours, workshops/conferences/ seminars/presentation of papers abroad at government cost will not be entertained except those that are fully funded by sponsoring agencies. It Means: Don’t worry. Just get those sponsored. The recession is not as bad as it’s made out to be. After all, Sensex is above 16,000 now from the lows of sub-8000 level.

Memo Says: Purchase of vehicles, except for operational requirements of the defence forces, Central paramilitary forces and security related organizations, will not be permitted. It Means: It’s quite sad if you were expecting a ford ikon to replace your old ambassador as it was recently done in case of a number of North Block officials. But the good thing is that ambassadors survive, at least for now. After all, babu blogger claims himself a follower of white ambassadors, and not of ford ikons! Action & Appointments R P Agrawal, a 1972 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS, and secretary in the department of higher education in the ministry of human resource development will hold additional charge of the post of secretary, department of school education and literacy in the HRD ministry during the period of leave of Anshu Vaish, a 1975 batch MP cadre IAS from 9th September, 2009 to 21st September, 2009.