EVERY month, approximately 15 to 20 civil servants
superannuate but Ashok Lavasa knows how to make it memorable. Lavasa, a
1980-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre and former Secretary, Finance,
superannuated on October 31, 2017. The soft-spoken officer had a wonderful
spotless career and is known to be a passionate photographer (his photos have
been published in gfiles). Lavasa sent an SMS to all his friends and
well-wishers the day after superannuation. The SMS read as follows: “In life
there’s always a time to ‘move on’. In government that time comes when it asks
you to ‘stop’. That stop at sixty happened on 31st October 2017, which brought
to close an innings that lasted 37 years and 46 days. The ‘first phase’ of life
ended on 15th September 1980, when I joined the Indian Administrative Service
and the ‘second phase’ when I superannuated as Finance Secretary of the
country. In between there was Environment & Forest, Civil Aviation, Power,
Home, Economic Affairs at the Centre and Industries, Tourism, Public Relations
at the State. 21 years in the state of Haryana and 16 in GOI. Now for the
‘third phase’, the yet-to-be determined future that may be shaped by the
evident and not-so-evident past. What continues, however, is the association
one has formed with men and matters. It matters to me; hope it matters to you
as well. I will continue to retain the same mobile number (as it is personal),
the same residential address for 6 months (as it is the government’s), not the
same official position but the same disposition. I do not wish to thank you for
your support as I want it to continue, but I do feel grateful for your good
wishes that brought me thus far. I hope to remain in touch.” His Twitter
profile @AshokLavasa changed a bit but shows enthusiasm and spirit, “Traveller,
Sportsperson, Author, Music lover, ex-Administrator, & still alive”. gfiles
wishes him good luck.
December 13, 2017
UPSC sans IAS
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the
nodal agency which recruits officers and conducts the civil services exams,
doesn’t have a single IAS officer on its administrative board. The UPSC is
currently headed by Prof David R. Syiemlieh, an academician. It has eight
members on its board. Except for IPS officer, Bhim Sain Bassi, former Police
Commissioner, and Indian Foreign Service officer, Sujata Mehta, all members are
out of the domain of civil services. It’s a body of postal officers, engineers
and educators. Vinay Mittal is an IRTS officer. Arvind Saxena, an engineer by
education, is an IPoS officer of the 1978 batch. Prof (Dr) Pradeep Kumar Joshi,
an educator, served as Chairman, Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission, and
also Chairman, Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission. Air Marshal Ajit
Shankarrao Bhonsle (retd), is a defence professional. Dr Manoj Soni is an
educator and former Vice Chancellor of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University.
One thus wonders why there is no IAS officer in the core body which recruits
IAS, IPS, and IFS and other civil servants. Sources disclosed that former
Chairman Deepak Gupta reportedly created a hullabaloo on the issue of status of
UPSC chairman and its members–all were equal in the status holding cabinet rank
status. It is reported that Deepak Gupta, former Secretary, Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy, who allegedly got the coveted post through the recommendation
of a Gujarati solar panel contractor, did not like the idea of being equal
among equals. So, a request was made that only the Chairman UPSC should hold
Cabinet Secretary status and privileges with other members being at par with
Secretary rank. Naturally, the IAS fraternity do not want to join the bandwagon
even after retiring as Secretary to work under a non-civil services officer.
Women power
It’s surprising that in the election year,
Karnataka government has assigned the job to administer the state to two
top-ranking women civil servants-Chief Secretary K Ratnaprabha and Director
General of Police Neelamani N Raju. K Ratnaprabha is a 1981-batch IAS officer
of the Karnataka cadre and will retire on March 31, 2018. She is the third
woman chief secretary of Karnataka after Teresa Bhattacharya (2000) and Malathi
Das (2006). She worked as deputy commissioner in Raichur and Bidar, apart from
serving in departments such as commerce and industry, communication and
transport. Ratnaprabha, originally belonging to Andhra Pradesh, did her
graduation in physics and chemistry before shifting her stream and completing
post-graduation in two subjects, English and Sociology. A month ago, 1983-batch
Indian Police Service officer Neelamani N Raju took over as DGP in the state.
Raju, who belongs to Roorkee in Uttarakhand, became the state’s first woman
director general and inspector general of police on October 31, breaking a
glass ceiling in the state police. She is a 1983 batch IPS officer and wife of
former IAS officer Narasimha Raju. She had a long career in Intelligence Bureau
where she moved up to the post of additional director. She was the recipient of
the President Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2009. This 57-year-old
officer will be at the helm till January end, 2020.
IAS-turned Sabziwala
WHEN one hears the chant ‘sabziwala’, a picture of
a cart fully loaded with vegetables appears in mind along with a man who is
usually dressed in kurta-pajamas. But the chant has taken on a new avatar,
online. Pravesh Sharma, a 1982-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre,
now resigned from IAS, has begun a start-up named ‘Sabziwala’, a retail fruits
and vegetables chain that promises delivery of quality fresh produce directly
sourced from farmers to consumers. He would have been a Secretary in the
Government of India (he served as a director in the Prime Minister’s office at
the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee) had he not resigned. At the end of his
bureaucratic career he chose to change tracks. Sharma believes he supplies quality
produce at prices that are a tad less than those of Safal, Mother Dairy’s
market leading brand in the Delhi region. A student of history from Delhi
University, Sharma brings 18 years of experience in agriculture, including as
agriculture secretary of Madhya Pradesh and India representative of the
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). His last major stint
was as Managing Director for five years of the Small Farmers’ Agri-business
Consortium (SFAC), which encourages farmers to set up producer companies with
guidance and grants. Sabziwala began commercial trials in June in Delhi’s
sub-city of Dwarka. “I wanted to create an enterprise around agriculture to
demonstrate it can be a viable, inclusive, sustainable and scalable. I chose
fruits and vegetables because this is the most fragmented value chain,” says
Sharma. His is an asset-light model. Sabziwala owns very little.
Everything-warehouses, trucks, labour-are leased or contracted. Sharma has
changed the dynamic for the superannuated ‘babus’; if you have a passion for
your job, don’t look for post-retirement government jobs, but learn from Sharma
how to create a brand and add value to society.
Aap’s Rajya Sabha worries
DELHI Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is caught
between BJP-led Central Government and various court cases. The people had high
hopes from Kejriwal but he has become persona non grata in political circles
within two years. The Congress is not ready to touch him. He has made the Delhi
assembly a mud-slinging platform against his opponents. Instead of speaking
from public platforms, he calls a ‘one-day session’ of the Delhi assembly where
he and his MLAs rant against his opponents. Delhiites have never seen such a government.
What’s more, he and his election managers toured Gujarat extensively before the
assembly elections even though the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) contested only on 11
assembly seats. Further, many AAP senior leaders are reportedly baffled about
the initiatives of nominating prominent personalities for Rajya Sabha next
year. Insiders claim Kejriwal can’t tolerate the rise of any AAP leader.
Sources disclosed that Kejriwal’s sudden behavioural change is reportedly due
to pressure from the RSS and BJP. It’s well known in political circles that
Kejriwal is reportedly sympathetic to the RSS and can’t defy the bosses of RSS.
Twitter battles
THE venomous relationship between Congress party’s
Young Turks, Manish Tiwari and Deepender Hooda, is no secret. But perhaps even Rahul
Gandhi could not have anticipated that this would take the form of open brawls
in public fora. Apparently, Hooda had gone to address a meeting of the Congress
student’s wing, National Students Union of India (NSUI). Soon, the national
secretary of NSUI, Surabhi Dwivedi twitted: “Today Hooda Sir has given a new
slogan, ‘You and I, NSUI’, so thank you so much from the core of our hearts for
thus inspiring us with the slogan.” Tiwari jumped into the fray and retorted on
Twitter: “This is an old slogan. It was first given in 1985 by the president of
the JNU students’ union… the same man today is with the Telegu Desam party and
his wife is the defence minister of the country.” Tiwari made his point without
naming Nirmala Sitharaman’s husband Parakala Prabhakar, who is the
Communications Advisor to the Chandrababu Naidu government in Andhra Pradesh.
New trimurti in Delhi
FORMER Chief Minister of UP Mulayam Singh’s clan
had a fierce fight just before the assembly elections. Following
demonetisation, the three main actors of the family-former Chief Minister of UP
Akhilesh Yadav, his uncle Ram Gopal Yadav, and Shivpal Yadav-were more worried
about saving their alleged unaccounted wealth and avoiding the pressure of
investigating agencies rather than saving the seat of power in Lucknow. Akhilesh
Yadav still has the support of Ram Gopal Yadav along with the younger brigade
of the Yadav clan. When Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha member Naresh Agarwal
hosted a party at a Delhi hotel in July 2107 to celebrate fellow MP Ram Gopal
Yadav’s silver jubilee in Parliament, he had a surprise guest-Prime Minister
Narendra Modi. Modi not only found time to join the celebration, but also spoke
glowingly about Ram Gopal’s political career and services as an MP. Meanwhile,
the gap has widened between Ram Gopal and Shivpal Yadav. Shivpal has chosen
another way. He is increasingly seen with maverick Amar Singh and owner of Zee
TV Subhash Goyal, a newly elected Rajya Sabha member. This trimurti is seen in
parties, meetings and dinners together. It’s learnt that Amar Singh and Subhash
Goyal are pampering Shivpal to invest his alleged unaccounted wealth into their
ventures. Also, Shivpal has reportedly bought a house in the posh Jorbagh
colony in Delhi. Watch this space for more updates.
Kejriwal strikes again
THE relationship between Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal and civil servants serving in the Delhi Government is said to
be rocky, even acrimonious. The behaviour of Kejriwal for last two years
indicates that he does not trust UT-cadre IAS officers. Even the officers are
feeling suffocated and finding all means to run away from the Delhi government.
There are innumerable instances where Kejriwal knowing or unknowingly
humiliated even senior-most officers of Delhi Government. In December 2015, the
Delhi Andaman Nicobar Services (DANICS) officers had gone on a mass leave,
protesting against the suspension of two special home secretaries. Kejriwal’s
pattern allegedly is to humiliate the officers or transfer them to
insignificant posts where there is no work at all. Some senior IAS officers
told gfiles that the atmosphere in Delhi government is frustrating and officers
don’t know where to go and whom to complain to. Take the case of IAS officer
Keshav Chandra, Delhi’s Environment Secretary, who has been playing a crucial
role in battling air pollution in the Capital. He has been transferred out of
the State government and posted as Joint Secretary (logistics) in the commerce
department. Chandra, as Delhi Jal Board’s CEO, was reported to be at loggerheads
with the Kejriwal government. In July, the privilege committee of the assembly
had summoned him in connection with a case related to irregularities in the
tendering process of 14 sewage treatment plants along the Yamuna. In the
meeting, Chandra is learnt to have had heated arguments with the committee
members. However, during the pollution crisis, Chandra played a crucial role as
he coordinated with various departments in dealing with the emergency. On
November 20, the central Personnel and Training Department issued an order of
transfers of senior IAS officers in which Chandra was asked to move to the
Ministry of Commerce. Chandra’s departure follows the recent transfer of PWD
Principal Secretary Ashwini Kumar, who too was in Kejriwal’s line of fire. The
paradox is that even the Home Ministry, the cadre controlling body, is a mute
spectator to the deteriorating condition of Delhi administration.
Normalising corruption
A raging political storm over appointment of
Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta provides enough and apt indications as to how the
Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has been striving to ‘normalisze’ corruption
in the State over a decade. The ‘normalisation’ process has hidden (purchasable
opposition leaders and mediamen) and not-so-hidden (corrupt bureaucrats down to
the ground level) stakeholders. Judiciary is, of course, not its part but some
of the judges’ actions have aroused suspicions in public from time to time.
Ruling party members and RSS volunteers are open and brazen collaborators.
Power to Serve
IT was Allahabad’s infectious pull for civil
services that put Sharda Prasad, son of unlettered farmer parents in Alampur
Geria village of Fatehpur district, on the road to be an IAS. Prasad wanted to
be an engineer and had already completed Bachelor of Science (BSc) from
Allahabad University when the competitive atmosphere of the Sangam city rubbed
off on him. He enrolled for masters in Political Science whose syllabus was
kind of amalgamation of five papers of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)
examination.
Haryana 51 Years : ‘My strength was that I never sought postings’
I was named by my mother, who was very
religious. She named my brothers Sri Bhagwan and Ved Bhagwan. After one of them
died, her mindset altered and my youngest brother was named Brijender. I belong
to a Vaishya community but never added this to my name. When my father, an
advocate, admitted me to school, he entered my name as Vishnu Bhagwan Aggarwal.
I asked him to let it be Vishnu Bhagwan. Nobody in Haryana knew that I belong
to a Vaishya community. That benefited me a lot in caste-ridden India.
Haryana 51 Years : AIIMS Jhajjar – A beacon of hope for cancer patients
THE people of Haryana have so far lacked good
healthcare facilities; either they had to go to Post-graduate Institute of
Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, or rush to Delhi. This seems to be
changing now. Haryana is concentrating on healthcare facilities and the latest
landmark is AIIMS Jhajjar, which has been specially designed for cancer
treatment under the dynamic leadership of Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS,
Delhi, and Dr GK Rath, Chief, Dr BR Ambedkar Institute, Rotary Cancer Hospital,
AIIMS.
Haryana 51 Years : An affair to remember
THE idea of a career in the administrative
services was not mine. I was barely 13 years old and about to give my Class IX
examination, when my father, a professor, advised me that I should plan to get
into the IAS rather than follow him as an engineer. My only perception of the
IAS and its predecessor, the ICS, was that of all-powerful district magistrates
and formidable collector sahibs issuing prohibitory orders like Section 144 of
the CRPC. I was a child during the pre-Partition and Partition riots. I remember
a public relations person sitting in an open tonga announcing the collector’s
diktats.
Haryana 51 Years : Haryana’s political journey
WHEN Haryana, or what was then known as South
Punjab, was made a separate State on November 1, 1966, it hardly had anything
going for it. The basic amenities-drinking water, electricity and roads-were
scarce. Over 80 per cent of its 6,841 villages were living in the dark. They
had no access to potable drinking water and still drew their intake out of
wells. The connectivity was poor with cycle, tonga and bullock cart being used
for ferrying people. The number of people owning tractors in villages was rare.
In cities, people travelled in private buses.
Haryana 51 Years : Far away from home My Haryana days
AS a student of Economics in the 1950s at the
southernmost tip of India, I was fascinated by the ‘Idea of India’ development
with democracy-propounded by the Founding Fathers of the Republic in the midst
of deep poverty and brutal violence caused by Partition. As I grew up and
gained knowledge on the finer elements of politics and economics, this idea was
ingrained in my mind and got lodged in the sub-conscience. The ‘idea of
democracy’ is that India would have political institutions consisting of
self-governing, self-sufficient, agro-industrial, urbo-rural local
communities-gram sabha, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad-that would form the
base of Vidhan Sabhas and the Lok Sabha.
Haryana 51 Years : Lals of Haryana
NOTWITHSTANDING that Chaudhary Devi Lal’s
ambition to be the Prime Minister was thwarted-he ending up as Deputy PM under
VP Singh and Chandrashekhar-Haryana did willy-nilly produce a PM, albeit
temporarily. Gulzari Lal Nanda, who was interim PM after the demise of
Jawaharlal Nehru in May 1964 and again after Lal Bahadur Shastri in January
1966, belonged to that part of Punjab which on November 1, 1966, emerged as
India’s 20th State, Haryana. Nanda was responsible for the emergence of
Faridabad, an industrial town on the fringe of Delhi, in the early sixties.
Haryana 51 Years : A Study in Leadership
I
was Deputy Commissioner Hissar when Haryana was formed in 1966, and thus was
with Haryana from the very beginning. My colleagues who remained with Punjab
made no secret of their sympathy for me, being cast off, as they saw it, to a
neglected and relatively backward part of old Punjab State. Many, in fact, had
doubts as to whether we would even survive as a State. As Haryana and Punjab
officers sat on different floors of the shared Secretariat in Chandigarh, they
had plenty of opportunity to joke at our expense, even offering to help out
with loans in case I did not get my salary. I, however, regarded it as both an
opportunity and a challenge, and in retrospect, it was the most fortuitous
development in my career.
Haryana 51 Years : Haryana – 50 years and beyond
ON
November 1, 2016, a gala event was organised at Gurgaon, now Gurugram, marking
the Golden Jubilee of Haryana’s creation. Prime Minster Narendra Modi, some of
his Cabinet colleagues, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal, Ministers of
Haryana Government and many other VIPs were present at a glittering ceremony at
Tau Devi Lal Stadium. Everyone present was full of verve and enthusiasm,
including the Prime Minister and Haryana Chief Minister. I was also present.
From the Editor
FIFTY-ONE years after the birth of Haryana
State, on November 1, 1966, it is time to take stock of where it was, where it
has reached, and which way is it likely to go over the next two-three decades.
When Haryana was carved out of Punjab State, largely based on language, there
was political instability, the landscape was deserted and industry was almost
unknown. An economic desert of sorts lay in front of the first Chief Minister,
Bhagwat Dayal Sharma. The challenges were many; so were the opportunities.
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