Head hunting
After a rather tepid Cabinet reshuffle, the wait is now for the long expected changes in the upper echelons of babudom, not the least being who'll replace the tainted P.J. Thomas at the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). Among the names being considered, sources say, are Union finance secretary Sushma Nath and, maybe, even
Union home secretary G.K. Pillai, who retires in June. Following the Supreme Court's danda, the government we are told will also consider "non-Indian Administrative Service" candidates. Speculation is also rising on whether Pulok Chatterjee, currently serving at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. and considered the "natural choice" in the United Progressive Alliance establishment, will be named to replace incumbent K.M. Chandrasekhar as the new Cabinet Secretary. The ministry of external affairs (MEA) too is poised for a number of changes, with talk of the possibility of foreign secretary Nirupama Rao replacing her batchmate Meera Shankar as US ambassador at the end of her term in July this year. With new appointments awaited in London, Moscow, Paris, Tehran and Canberra, seems like it'll be a year of new faces at the MEA.
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Birthing woes
The forced retirement of a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer ordered by the Jammu and Kashmir government has now reached the state high court. Inspector General of Police Farooq Ahmed was retired last month for allegedly fudging his date of birth details. Mr Ahmed has now challenged the action. Curiously, while Mr Ahmed was removed by an order of the state government, the brass claim they had no hand in his retirement. The finger is pointed at Delhi since, as an IPS officer, Mr Ahmed was directly under the Union home ministry. Meanwhile, the episode has created quite a stir in the state. Babu-watchers note some interesting aspects to the case. Apparently, Mr Ahmed, who joined the state police in 1977, had urged the authorities to correct his date of birth since it was wrongly recorded in school records. The matter could have ended then, but while the state government amended the date, it apparently did not inform the Union home ministry about the change. Meanwhile, not surprisingly, the case file has been missing from government records since 2001. But now that the matter is in court, we can, perhaps, hope that the truth will finally emerge.
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