Dilli Ka Babu
Domestic ties
The trend of retired IAS officers picking up jobs in the information commissions continues unabated, despite cries of protests from civil activists. In Haryana, according to sources, chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has cleared the appointment of newly retired chief secretary Urvashi Gulati for appointment as state information commissioner. The chief information commissioner of the state, Naresh Gulati, also happens to be a former IAS officer. He had resigned from the civil service last year to take up the assignment. Is it just a coincident that he is Ms Gulati’s husband?
While Ms Gulati has exited from the post of chief secretary, the state government is yet to announce her successor.
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The mamata effect
The ripples set off by the exit of railway minister Dinesh Trivedi at the insistence of his displeased boss, Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, and his replacement by Mukul Roy are yet to settle down. Clearly with Mr Roy, a Mamata loyalist, taking over, babus in the Rail Mantralay are expecting a reshuffle in the ministry which has been a stronghold of Ms Banerjee from the time she was the railway minister.
According to sources, when the Trinamul leader moved back to Kolkata as chief minister after last year’s Assembly elections, she also took along her trusted IAS loyalists, including Ratan Mukerjee, Tapan Roy, J.K. Saha and Gautam Sanyal, among a few others. Apparently Mukul Roy and Mr Mukherjee continue to retain their old offices in the railway ministry. But with Mr Roy coming in as the new railway minister, it is not clear whether he will bring in new faces or continue to operate with the aid of Didi’s favourites.
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Modi under fire
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is used to confrontations with the UPA government, so this may have a familiar ring. Still, eyebrows were raised in Mr Modi’s state when a former director-general of police (DGP), R.B. Sreekumar, dashed off a letter to Union home minister P. Chidambaram seeking his intervention for the appointment of a DGP in Gujarat. The post has been lying vacant since September 2010, after the retirement of S.S. Khandelwal. Since then Chitaranjan Singh, officer of an assistant DGP rank, has been holding the office as acting DGP. According to Mr Sreekumar, the rule book states that the office of the DGP cannot remain unoccupied for more than six months. According to sources, Mr Sreekumar has sought an explanation from the Union home ministry for allowing the position to remain vacant. No word yet on whether Mr Chidambaram proposes to respond to the former IPS officer’s missive and how.
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