With a reputation for valuing governance, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is in need of upright officers to develop the state and rid it of the legacy of the previous regime of Laloo Prasad Yadav known more for corruption and kidnappings than any thing else. But there are not enough hands to imple ment developmental programmes as a large number of civil servants from the state cadre are overstaying their tenure of deputation at the Centre A CM can recall officers from Delhi and Nitish definitely wants them back. On his last visit to Delhi, he met the Minister in charge of the Department of Personnel and Training, Suresh Pachauri, and asked him to relieve the officers immediately. The minister agreed and told him to sub mit the names along with a formal request.
Elated, Nitish returned to Patna dreaming of a developed Bihar under his stewardship. But, when the news reached the concerned bureaucrats in Delhi, they were in a quandary. It transpires that they themselves are not the ones unwilling to go back and serve the state.The veto emanates from their other halves, terrified at the rampant kid napping of civil servants’ wives and daughters – again a part of the legacy of the previous regime To stave off an imminent return to Bihar, the hapless bureaucrats have decided to exercise their right to go on a year’s study leave. It can not be denied to them by any authority – Central or state.And so Nitish is left high and dry.
Rebuff on home turf for Lalli
The dictum “As you sow, so shall you reap” came home rather bluntly to BS Lalli, a retired 1971-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh who is currently the controversial Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati. Lalli secured a three-year term in Prasar Bharati a year ago but then began eyeing the chairmanship of the UP Public Service Commission under the new Mayawati government as that tenure would last five years. He thought UP Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh would be obliging. But Lalli was in for a shock when he went to see the former pilot in his office in Lucknow. The Prasar Bharati CEO was asked to sit in the visitors’ room and wait his turn like anyone else. After an hour, he was finally called in. By this time, he was fuming and in no mood to exchange initial pleasantries. He marched in and stated,“Mr Singh, I am the senior most IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh and you should not have kept me waiting so long.” But Singh has flown every important politician and bureaucrat of the state and there is very little that he doesn’t know. He knows well how Lalli has been sidelined by the pro fessionals in Doordarshan for being unable to learn even simple aspects of pro duction. He retorted smil ingly,“Your innings in UP is over.And I am too busy to meet anyone without appointment.”And then he called for the next visitor to be sent in.
It is no secret that corpo rates know how to manipulate a civil servant for their own benefit both before and after his retire ment from the government post.The pity is that the common man invariably ends up the loser.The National Commodity Derivative Exchange (NCDEX) is the country’s lone online commodity exchange promoted by national institutions. It is engaged in speculative trad ing of 157 agricultural commodities and claims that it does not have anyvested interest in the commodity market.
However, when reports that only traders and not farmers were benefiting from the speculative trading were confirmed, the Union government banned futures trading in wheat, rice, urad and tur. It also set up a committee headed by emi nent economist Abhijit Sen to look into the entire affair and judge if the ban was justified. Sen was Chairman Agricultural Cost and Prices (CACP) from July 1997 to December 2000. NCDEX lost no time in bringing in a retired Joint Secretary, Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies, onto its Board of Directors.The
point was that this officer’s stint in the ministry had coincided with Sen’s tenure in the CACP. The man was also a member of a high powered Foodgrain Committee chaired by Sen and so enjoyed a close rap port with him. Having played its cards well (despite its declaration of not having any vested interest in the commodities market), NCDEX is now optimistic that the retired bureaucrat will bring about favourable recommendations by the Sen commit tee.And voila! The ban will be lifted.
