Bureaucrats blamed for misleading Left Front government on Singur land row



Deserted Singur

AS IT has turned out now that Mamata Banerjee actually handled the Singur land row better than the Left veterans, former Left administration has begun to make the bureaucrats the fall guys. According to reports, a former CPI(M) minister blamed the bureaucrats for misleading the government on Singur land issue. Former West Bengal land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah has said that the babus misled the erstwhile Left Front government that land in Singur could not be returned to farmers. The former minister has now supported the Singur Bill which is being tabled in state assembly with an objective to return land to the agitating farmers. The Tata Motors, which built 80% of its factory in Singur for its Nano car project, shifted their base to Gujarat because of Banerjee-led agitation. The Singur episode became the turning point for Trinamul Congress’ landslide victory in Bengal.

40 officers attend Jaya's tea party
Around 40 IAS, IPS and IFS officers of Tamil Nadu cadre attended a tea party organized by chief minister J Jayalalithaa in New Delhi recently. Those officers who attended it included director general CRPF K Vijayakumar, K Skandan, Rajiv Nayan Choubey, Sandeep Rai Rathore, R Gopalan, Ajay Bhattacharya, Shakti Kanta Das, Ashok Kumar Gupta, C Chandramouli, Shashi Shekhar and Ashutosh Shukla, according to media reports.
The party turned out to be fruitful for many New Delhi-based senior officials, but for many, the new CM’s appeal for their return journey to Chennai was not well digested. After all, most Tamil Nadu cadre officers prefer to be on deputation in New Delhi rather than being posted in Chennai.

Bengal officers look for greener pastures outside Left bastion

THE sixth Pay Commission and the current economic uncertainty might have stopped civil servants including senior IAS officers abandoning power corridors and joining the private sector, but the flee of officers particularly from the Left bastion of West Bengal has still been continuing. The difference, however, is that they don’t want to leave the government altogether, but want greener pasture somewhere outside the state. The latest case, as has been reported in a section of media, is the 1988 batch IAS and secretary of animal resources M V Rao, who has joined as the deputy director, National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh happens to be Mr Rao’s home state. He had earlier served as managing director of West Bengal Industrial Development Council (WBIDC). According to media reports, P R Baviskar too had requested the government to send him on deputation to his home state, Maharashtra. In fact, political upheavals at Singur and Nandigram and the subsequent events there made many IAS officers looking for opportunities outside the state. According to reports, industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen and municipal affairs secretary P K Pradhan have also expressed their desire to get out of the state. In fact, personal secretaries to Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, minister of state for shipping Mukul Roy and minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi are all IAS officers of West Bengal cadre. Families of armed forces sensitized on menace of spying Regular awareness programmes are being conducted to sensitize members of Armed Forces and their families regarding the threat perception and modus operandi being adopted by the adversaries, as a number of spying cases carried out by Pakistan-based intelligence agencies were detected. During 2006 to 2009 (till now), eight such cases were registered and seven serving personnel were arrested. And nine serving personnel of the defence forces were either convicted or dismissed, defence minister A K Antony said in Lok Sabha on Monday.