A babu’s legacy

With the Ambani brothers no longer at war, will the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) breathe easy? It had received some unwelcome attention during the tenure of its former chief V.K. Sibal. Though Mr Sibal has now left, the spotlight has remained fixed on the organisation, with the Central Vigilance Commission and the

Central Bureau of Investigation continuing investigations into various allegations against Mr Sibal even now. One obvious fall-out is the growing restlessness of professional babus working in the directorate. Many of these babus are actively seeking repatriation to their “parent” departments or state-owned firms in order to avoid grilling by investigators.
S.K. Srivastava, Mr Sibal’s successor at DGH, according to sources, has expressed his helplessness, saying he cannot force the babus to stay on. Apparently, he has discussed the issue with petroleum secretary S. Sundareshan. Subsequently, an open-house session was held to discuss the employees’ concerns. But apparently this “confidence-building” measure has failed to stem the exodus from DGH.

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IPS row
The government’s efforts to fill the 657 vacancies of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers have been stymied by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). In what is being perceived as a setback to the home minister’s battle against Naxals and terrorism, the UPSC rejected P. Chidambaram’s suggestion to recruit IPS officers from amongst young Central and state police officers.
The home ministry had proposed to induct 70-80 officers annually from this pool for the next seven years, besides the 150 IPS officers recruited through the civil service examination and through the promotion quota of the states. Mr Chidambaram’s proposal was based on the recommendation of the panel headed by a former IPS officer Kamal Kumar.
The home ministry babus will now push the Prime Minister’s Office to help implement the scheme. But while they believe that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s approval would “overrule” UPSC, it remains to be seen whether this strategy will succeed.

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Fighting graft
In its fight against corrupt babus, the government is now concerned about the invariable delays in processing cases, which it plans to check by constituting a high-level panel to fast-track corruption cases involving babus. The new panel would be headed by former Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) chairman P.C. Hota, with former chief vigilance commissioner P. Shankar and former personnel secretary Arvind Verma as members. The panel will be provided logistical support by the department of personnel and training.
While it is mandatory for all corruption cases to be referred to the recruiting authority — UPSC, most cases were referred just before the tainted babus retired. Consequently, the UPSC did not get sufficient time to examine the cases and recommend disciplinary action. The new panel would hopefully fast-track cases and punish the tainted while in service.