Sentinels of Raising Hill — how 2 civil servants capture North and South blocks alive

ON MONDAY, just a day before the Budget session of Parliament begins, officials of all finance ministry departments had a get-together at the historic Great Hall which is often used as a common passage to cross from one side of North Block (finance ministry ) to other side (ministry of home affairs). Those who were present included expenditure secretary Ratan P Watal, DEA secretary Shakti Kanta Das, revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia, disinvestment secretary Neeraj Kumar Gupta and chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian among others. The occasion was the launch of an exhibition on coins and currency in India, but it was during the function, senior finance ministry official and 1979 batch ICAS officer Mohan J Joseph…

Delhi’s power corridor feels the heat of monsoon fury; normal work paralyzed

THE work in many government offices in Delhi got disrupted as heavy rains accompanied by strong wind lashed the city Friday afternoon. Whereas a number of appointments and meetings got cancelled, and many bureaucrats were caught up in hours long traffic jams across Lutyen’s Delhi, premises of many key ministries including commerce and industry, steel, urban development and power witnessed severe water logging forcing even the powerful babus encountering real-time monsoon of the current season. The only area that escaped the virtual flash flood was the relatively higher zone of North and South Blocks housing several important ministries such as home, finance, PMO and defence though the officers who were out in the city at that point of time faced the nightmare of Delhi’s one of the worst traffic jam situationa during the recent time. Though falling of trees were seen in premises of many government offices in the capital, none of the buildings witnessed a similar fate as that of Indira Gandhi international airport where a part of the roof in the departure terminal was blown off by the wind, which raised many a question regarding the design of the airport being modernised on a public private partnership mode with GMR group holding the majority stake. Govt may adopt a new agenda for administrative reforms The government may adopt a new agenda for reforms in administration to meet the challenges of the changing times, minister of state for personnel, public grievances & pensions Prithviraj Chavan hinted while inaugurating a day-long conference of state secretaries of the administrative reforms held in New Delhi on Friday. The institution of Prime Minister’s Awards which recognize the best practitioners of administration in wide ranging areas from education, transportation, health, service delivery, policing, environment and urban governance, has given an impetus towards bringing many of the ‘Best Practices’ in administration to limelight, he added. Secretary of administrative reforms and pension Rajni Razdan said that the thrust areas in government reform included transparency, accountability and efficiency among others. Read: "ARC recommendations to be implemented with speed, says Prime Minister; RTI Act to be improved" posted on August 15, 2009.

Action & Appoitments a) The appointments committee of the cabinet (ACC) has rejected the proposal for inter-cadre deputation of Praveen Kumar Raghav, IFS (J&K, 2000) from Jammu & Kashmir to Uttar Pradesh. b) Central deputation tenure of 1981 batch IAS of MP cadre Amar Singh, joint secretary, ministry of rural development has been extended for a period of three months. c) M G V K Bhanu, a 1985 batch Assam cadre IAS, presently on inter cadre deputation to the state of Andhra Pradesh, may be repatriated to his parent cadre of Assam-Meghalaya by the end of September 2009.

Babuz no 3: Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar is India’s third most powerful bureaucrat behind Pulok Chaterji & TKA Nair

A WEEK before the announcement of Parliamentary results in May this year, cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar, a 1970 batch IAS of Kerala cadre, ordered all secretaries to prepare a 100 days agenda for their respective ministry or department. By then, it was strongly anticipated that Congress would lead a coalition government, and by the time the government was actually formed, its 100 days agenda should be ready. No wonder, once Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh began his second innings from his South Block office, he had no qualm about Mr Chandrasekhar getting a one-year extension. Yes, K M Chandrasekhar who is well regarded among top echelon of civil servants in India is India’s No 3 most powerful bureaucrat. He is babuz no 3, just behind 1974 batch IAS from Uttar Pradesh cadre, Pulok Chaterji and principal secretary to PM TKA Nair, according to feedback received by babu blogger from senior civil servants and politicians. Also, read “babuz no 1: Pulok Chaterji is India’s most powerful bureaucrat” and “babuz no 2: principal secretary to PM TKA Nair is India’s second most powerful bureaucrat” posted on August 17 and 18 respectively. A former ambassador & permanent representative of India in World Trade Organization (WTO) and revenue secretary in the ministry of finance, Mr Chandrasekhar has a post graduation degree in management studies from the University of Leeds in United Kingdom. In fact, Mr Chandrasekhar had a close tie with another secretary three batch junior to him for the third position as many senior IAS officers in power corridors have rather vouched for the latter to be more powerful than the cabinet secretary. Anyway, the 1973 batch officer is babu blogger’s choice as the fourth most powerful bureaucrat in India. Watch out this space in the coming days to check out who are babuz no 4 & 5.

State secretaries to discuss urban issues in New Delhi today Principal secretaries or secretaries of urban development of states and union territories would meet on August 19 in New Delhi to discuss project completion in 65 Mission Cities under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), submission of Quarterly Project Reports (QPRs), utilization of funds and projected requirement of funds etc. The state government officials will also discuss other urban schemes such as national urban sanitation policy, pilot project on implementation of service level benchmarks and accelerated urban water supply programme (AUWSP) etc.

What’s if Rahul Gandhi decides to be the minister for rural development or health?

BUREAUCRATS in various ministries in Delhi have indulged in gossips during the last few days whether Congress icon and Prime Minister in-waiting Rahul Gandhi would accept Dr Manmohan Singh’s offer to join his cabinet, and what will it mean if he becomes the minister in their very own ministry? Gandhi junior has reportedly declined Dr Singh’s offer to take up a ministerial berth as the young leader still prefers to be on the organizational side rather than working in one government department. If sources in 24, Akbar Road, are to be believed, Mr Gandhi will take up ministries such as rural development or health if senior Congress leaders finally succeed in persuading him to be a minister. In fact, rural development is the nodal ministry implementing his pet project of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) which is likely to be expanded further with fresh infusion of resources in the next general Budget. Those who have worked under Mr Gandhi during the last few years feel he would take up only those ministries which would enable him to relate to aam aadmi and inclusive growth. For those efficient bureaucrats who may get a chance to work closely with Rahul Gandhi could turn out to be the most influential babus in Delhi despite the fact that they don’t work in not-so high profile ministries in North Block or South Block.