Pushing green

[1]

Feb 14 : While the government is doing its best to promote use of green energy, it is finding it difficult to push environment-friendly technologies and use of alternative sources of energy in its backyard. Although the ministry of new and renewable energy has

written to several government ministries, including defence, railways and tourism ministries on the issue, the response has been less than heartening. Actually Union minister for new and renewable energy Farooq Abdullah’s "green agenda" has received an encouraging response only from Parliament Speaker Meira Kumar, who has asked the ministry to help meet the energy needs of Parliament through renewable technologies, along the lines of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

However, Maharashtra government is moving quickly on the "green" agenda, with state environment secretary Valsa Nair Singh announcing a series of measures, including mandatory use of recycled paper, energy-saving light bulbs etc, in all state government offices. Karnataka too is considering imposing a "green cess" on industries in the state to raise funds to promote the renewable energy sector. Clearly, Mr Abdullah’s babus will need to push their agenda harder and make the Central ministries fall in line quickly.

***

Two-year ban

Stung by the steady exodus of babus to the corporate world, Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan has decided enough’s enough. Mr Chavan is particularly miffed with retired Indian Administrative Service babus now working in the private sector, and who he says are working against the government. According to observers, Mr Chavan is likely to enforce a law which states that retired babus cannot join a private firm for at least two years after leaving government service. This law, however, was relaxed in the mid-90s when the government actually began encouraging babus to take up corporate assignments. The idea at that time was that a stint with the corporate sector would hone their skills and help the administration when they returned to their sarkari desks. But with many babus joining the private sector as "consultants" and, in some cases, without informing the government, Mr Chavan feels that they could be working against the interests of the government. He fears that with their indepth knowledge of how the administration functions, they are able to push the interests of their corporate employers which may be detrimental to the interests of the government.

Naturally, Mr Chavan’s decision has upset some babus who say that the chief minister’s concern is misplaced. Even if bureaucrats work as a bridge to push various projects of the private players, they push the state’s growth as well, they feel. But for now Mr Chavan is sticking to his stand.

By Dilip Cherian