Dilli Ka Babu
A legal quandary
Should secretaries to chief ministers sign official documents on their behalf? Apparently this is common practice in Uttar Pradesh and it’s never really been questioned. Until now. A 1992 batch IPS officer, Amitabh Thakur, has challenged this practice, which, sources say, was started by former chief minister Mayawati and is continuing under the present chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Sources say, during Ms Mayawati’s tenure as Uttar Pradesh chief minister, official documents would often be signed by her secretary Vijay Singh, with comments that the chief minister approved the matter under discussion. Nowadays, it is Anita Singh, a 1990 batch IAS officer, who seems to be signing off on behalf of Mr Yadav.
Mr Thakur has questioned this practice and sought the court’s verdict on it. He claims that such practices encourage misuse of power. His action has, obviously, garnered a lot of interest in babudom. Watch this space for updates.
***
Feeling ignored
The winds of liberalisation sweeping through babudom may have been welcomed by many, but not by the Indian Information Service (IIS). Officers from the service are increasingly feeling neglected and even overlooked due to the penchant of certain ministries to outsource publicity work. They complain that senior IAS officers no longer share information about their ministry or department with IIS officers.
There is a reason for their jitters, sources say. Apparently, in recent times, ministries such as environment and forest, human resource development and culture have been outsourcing their publicity campaigns to the private sector. But the IIS has found support from the information and broadcasting ministry (I&B). I&B secretary Uday Kumar Verma has now written to his peers in other ministries to continue
giving work to the IIS officers. Will they
cooperate?
Post new comment