It’s rare to find a policewallah who is sensitive and in touch with the common man’s perception. One such officer is Ashwini Kumar, Director of the dreaded and controversial CBI. Though his job bestows on him a ruthless image, yet he is considered a “decent policeman”. Much of this, perhaps, is owed to the fact that he is a masterful cartoonist and also has an abiding interest in cinema with a message. Those who know him well are all praise for his simplicity. But all this does not make him a weak cop. He means business when it comes to unravelling conspiracies, on which he can hold forth with as much authority as on the arts, literature and academics. The presence of more officers like him in the services would have brought about a sea change in the general impression of the bureaucracy and also ensured impartial governance.
SAIL in choppy waters
Strange goings-on in a Navratna PSU: the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)! Outgoing chairman Sushil Kumar Roongta, reputed as a thorough professional, appears not to be seeking an extension – being neither a bureaucrat nor a hanger-on in any political cobweb! According to the advertisement by the Public Enterprise Bureau, the Chairman is equivalent to Additional Secretary. However, disregarding all parameters, Joint Secretaries are applying for the job! Worse, they are even mobilizing support for their candidature despite being ineligible. Sunil Arora (IAS, 1980, Rajasthan cadre), former CMD, Indian Airlines, is one of the applicants. Arvind Deb Singh of the UP cadre is trying to establish contact with Rahul Gandhi.
However, there are ways to circumvent all this. It is learnt that the panel, after scrutiny and other “mandatory” procedures, shall scrap the whole exercise and a new search will be started. This time, the Cabinet Secretariat will be authorized to look for a “suitable” incumbent. And, what’s more, this suitability will not be made public!
Vigilance begins at home!
The Registrar of Companies (ROC), New Delhi functions from a swanky office in Nehru Place, which is a centre for financial experts and Chartered Accountants. But its Record Room is situated in far-off Manesar, Haryana – some 55 km and three hours’ drive away. And not less than 10 officers visit the Record Room daily to look up files, match records and so on – for which each is paid TA/DA varying from Rs 700 to Rs 1000. So, an office which is supposed to be keeping a vigilant eye on the balance sheets of corporate houses and other companies is nurturing a racket of its own.
The seeds of this racket were sowed by a Haryana IAS officer of the 1983 batch. While on deputation as Joint Secretary, Administration in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, he got an industrial plot in his father’s name at Sector 5, Manesar, let out to the ROC for Rs 3.5 lakh. The usual rate for rent of similar properties in the area is not more than Rs 50,000. Interestingly, the plot was acquired when he was MD, Haryana Industrial Development Corporation. At the time when the MOC rented the property, the officer did not call for quotations for acquiring a place on rent. Nor did he seek a suitability report. The building, located in the Industrial Area, is unfit to house an office as a slight error could start a fire.
A soiree of babus
“Bureaucrats too are educated,” was the comment by Ashok Vajpeyi that provoked hearty chuckles from the gathering at the release of a book on poet and reformer Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali by SY Quraishi, Election Commissioner of India. Since Vajpeyi is also an IAS officer (1967 batch), the laughter was all the louder.
Vajpeyi, who is Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi, took the opportunity to remind other bureaucrats to diversify their skills and interests in order to inculcate values rather than corruption and “chori” (filching), which, he pointed out, was on the rise among in the bureaucracy. The book, Hali – Kavi Ek Roop Anek, is a painstaking exercise by Quraishi who utilized his postings in Karnal and Panipat to research the life and work of the poet.
