Crisis training
Few knew that Ajit Seth, who is taking over from K.M. Chandrasekhar as the new Cabinet Secretary, too went to receive Baba Ramdev at the Delhi airport. But since the babu maintains a low profile he escaped media attention, which focused on the four Cabinet ministers led by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Apparently, the view was that the political crisis created by the yoga guru afforded Mr Seth a good opportunity to get a sense of his new job.
Despite it being widely known that Mr Seth was appointed on the basis of his seniority in the pecking order, there has been grumbling in certain quarters that this wasn’t the case. It is being pointed out that there was at least one babu, S.P. Keshava, chairman of the Bihar Revenue Board, who is senior to Mr Seth. But those in the know say that Mr Keshava didn’t really stand a chance.
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PMO’s rail trip
Following Mamata Banerjee’s move to Kolkata, the railway ministry is being run from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), at least until the much-anticipated Cabinet reshuffle. This has provided an opportunity for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to push for key reforms which were stalled by Didi. Recently Dr Singh convened a meeting of railway top brass, including the entire railway board and senior secretaries at the ministry, to take stock.
Already, sources say, the PMO is tightening its grip on the ministry, pointing to a flurry of recent decisions. They cite a circular sent out from the PMO announcing that all rail projects of `100 crores and above will henceforth be handled by the PMO. This clearly implies that many prestigious projects, including the `77,000 crores freight corridor project and several proposed high-speed corridor projects, will now be overseen directly by the Prime Minister.
Indications are that the PMO is unlikely to relax its grip on the ministry even if Dr Singh allocates the ministry to someone new.
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Kabul bugaboo
As reported in this column some weeks ago, even the promise of humongous salaries failed to induce desi babus to serve in Kabul. The failure of babus to take the bait, notwithstanding a memorandum of understanding between India and Afghanistan, the government has now arranged for Afghan civil servants to come to Delhi for on-job training in the various ministries.
Sources say that Afghan babus will arrive shortly to learn the administrative ropes at various ministries as well as administrative colleges and training institutes across the country. But there is still no word on how India will keep its end of the bargain of sending our babus to set up and strengthen the administration in war-ravaged Afghanistan.
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