Babu blues for Mayawati
Already under fire from the courts for her government’s land acquisition policy, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati now finds herself in trouble with the Allahabad high court.
Acting on a PIL petition by a retired IAS babu, S.N. Shukla, the court has questioned the legality of Ms Mayawati appointing senior IAS officials in her secretariat and asked the Uttar Pradesh government to explain its stand.
The high court is probably concerned that some IAS officials were given posts that have no official sanction or, in other words, do not exist legally. According to sources, babus in the spotlight include Navneet Sehgal, Net Ram, Durga Shankar Mishra and R.P. Singh. According to Mr Shukla, there is no provision for the post of additional Cabinet secretary, and there’s only one position of principal secretary in the chief minister’s secretariat. Their pay packages are also against the pay rules. Over to Ms Mayawati!
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RBI headhunt
After the recent hike in rates, the air of uncertainty surrounding the financial sector and controlling runaway inflation, there is even more interest in who’ll be the next RBI governor after D. Subbarao retires in September. While one school of thought is backing an extension for Mr Subbarao, there are others who have new candidates in mind.
Among the names currently doing the rounds are Kaushik Basu, economic adviser in the finance ministry, who, though, is keen to get back to academia; Raghuram Raja, economic adviser to the Prime Minister; Ashok Lahiri, currently on the board of the Asian Development Bank; and economic affairs secretary R. Gopalan. This kind of phenomenal line-up of quality should daunt any selection panel.
Babu watchers, especially those who are backing a second term for Mr Subbarao, believe that since Mr Subbarao has had no major run-ins with the government on policy matters, he may stand a chance to get to continue in his current position.
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Never say bye
M. Veerappa Moily may have been moved out of the law ministry, but before leaving, he managed to present a 10-point proposal to the Prime Minister on how to improve governance and curb corruption. Among Mr Moily’s proposals is a suggestion that the government stop the practice of appointing retired bureaucrats as regulators.
The suggestion seems radical in the context of the UPA government, which has almost made it a policy to keep retired babus lingering on in some capacity or the other.
Mr Moily’s suggestion in this context does not inspire hope that it’ll ever see light of the day. But at least it has revived the debate.
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