The Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, BS Lalli, is on the rampage again. He has built a reputation for highhandedness and lack of competence but shows little inclination to turn over a new leaf. At the Prasar Bharati
board meeting on January 11, Lalli came with a list of demands that were far from professional. He sought induction of some IAS officers who are his friends — a demand that was vociferously turned down by the board. Its members pointed out that Prasar Bharati was started to ensure professionalism in the state-run radio and TV. The Standing Committee on Information Technology of Parliament had recently decided to restore professionalism and Minister PR Dasmunsi had told the media that only professionals would head AIR and Doordarshan.
Sources say Lalli was warned by the board that his powers would be clipped if he did not perform and carry the professionals with him. He was told to give the Director General of Doordarshan a free hand to shore up quality as it was losing its market share.
And what did Lalli do after this dressing down? He advised the Minister to remove board chairman MV Kamath as he was an appointee of the previous NDA government!
Jetair policy: use and throw
The management mantra of Naresh Goyal, Chairman of India’s largest private airlines, Jet Airways, is “use and dispose” when it comes to the babus of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Airport Authority of India, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and the Civil Aviation Minister himself. Those who become used to Goyal’s expansive hospitality (encompassing every possible domestic and personal need) see him unmasked once they quit office. He refuses to even take their calls and, taking a cue from this, the entire staff of his airlines considers them outcastes.
A couple of former Civil Aviation Ministers who became victims of his real persona have vowed not to travel by Jet Airways. The humiliated babus and politicians are looking for opportunities to rejoin the Ministry and give him a taste of his own medicine.
Goyal has weathered several charges and controversies — some as grave as alleged links with the underworld responsible for the Mumbai blasts. Though nothing could be proved against Jet Airways, it is still dogged by the allegations as most people believe there is no smoke without fire.
Should any of those disgruntled by Goyal’s behaviour rejoin the Ministry, will this smoke be fanned into a raging fire?
Skulduggery as black as coal
The Chairman-cum Managing Director of Northern Coalfields Ltd (headquartered at Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh),VK Singh, is achieving notoriety for sabotaging the mission of Coal India and for his connections with the local transport mafia don, Ratan Singh. The CMD is apparently undeterred by the fact that the Prime Minister himself looks after the Ministry of Coal.
Unprecedented corruption, dissatisfaction among officers and workers, favouritism and a plethora of unprofessional decisions have plagued the organization since Singh joined it. Some of his actions defy logic. The mining machines available with NC L cost hundreds of crores of rupees, and a single machine is operated by hundreds of workers at a given time. While he mining department operates them, the excavation department looks after maintenance. Whenever a spare part costing a few hundred rupees is needed, official sanction for the expenditure takes over a month to come. In order to prevent work being stalled because of it, the practice is to ask the empanelled contractor to replace the item and pay him after the money is sanctioned. Singh collected evidence of hundreds of such cases and began issuing showcause notices to about 250 officers of the excavation department rather than appreciating their commonsensical solution to the problem.
After 15 officers received notices, the officers’ association swung into action and staged demonstrations against Singh. They point out that, if a machine remains idle for want of spare parts, the cost to NCL is in crores of rupees. Singh wanted to force the officers to oblige him and turn a blind eye to his connections with the mafia don, with whom he is allegedly making huge investments in a cement factory at Singrauli.
