Jun 28 : One of the tasks awaiting the new government is restructuring of the Planning Commission at levels below the members. With Montek Singh Ahluwalia back in the saddle and some serious new talent in place, a similar exercise is expected at other levels. It’s inexplicable, of course, why other top-level talent, like the gifted Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, could not be "persuaded" to join. Perhaps it’s best to get global quality people from the outside into more hands-on jobs. After all, advisory roles like those at Yojana Bhavan, only appeal to the purely intellectually driven.
The aim internally is to open the portals for experts from outside. So far, only Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Economic Service (IES) officers have held all key positions in the commission. This is probably a portend of change elsewhere — if it works.
Considering that a campaign for appointing experts to jobs requiring specialised skills is gaining momentum within babudom, this may perhaps be the first major attempt at curbing the growing reach of generalists (read IAS babus) — if the powerful IAS lobby allows it! And to ensure that the commission attracts the best talent, a decision has been taken to offer higher salaries to the experts. The figure being mentioned is Rs 1 lakh a month for five years. That itself may well cause heartburn in some quarters.
Widened options
But while they find the Planning Commission less hospitable, there is good news for Indian Administrative Service (IAS) babus, especially those who nurse ambitions of heading regulatory bodies related to their ministries. The government, which had earlier barred these babus from applying for such posts, has now reversed the decision of the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC). For those wondering why, the decision is directly linked to the government’s inability to find a full-time chairman for the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP), despite a two-year search. The earlier chairman A.L. Bongiwar retired in October 2007, and since then Brahm Dutt, secretary, road transport, has been officiating. Sources say that the clause put paid to the efforts of former shipping secretary A.K. Mohapatra and former Mumbai Port chairperson Rani Jadhav to succeed Bongiwar. This ACC directive came after Santish Nautiyal, a retired IAS officer was rejected to head TAMP.
According to sources, the government now hopes to end the search by casting its net wider. Apparently, the shipping ministry has already been instructed to prepare a new list of probables, which should now include the names of some serving IAS babus. However, if an IAS officer does manage to get selected, the babu will have to quit the service before joining the port authority. Will that deter my favourite tribesmen?
By Dilip Cherian
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/content/dilip-cherian
