Over to London

party circuit provides fodder

London is a happening place for Indians, especially in summers. All those who can afford the cost generally move to the beautiful city. Influential facilitators of the Indian government are seen holidaying in London, according to reports. The first report was about a book release by a socialite. He got into trouble when he boasted to a well-known industrialist of his proximity to a very senior minister. He said that he could facilitate any work that was temporarily stalled.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1492&Name=Bric-a-brac

Nobody for Rae Bareli

It appears that nobody wants to go to Rae Bareli in the government. There are few takers for the post ofproject director in the Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University (RGNAU), located in Rae Bareli’s Fursatganj area. Rae Bareli is Sonia Gandhi’s constituency and RGNAU is a major institution in the area. In the changed political circumstances, there few takers for the post. Basically, it is used as a private helipad by Rahul Gandhi, Captain Satish Sharma, Sonia Ganhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1505&Name=...by%20the%20way

Learning at the Centre

For  three months, between August and October this year, about 200 IAS officers of 2013 and 2014 batches will be posted in Central government ministries and departments, mainly to give them a first-hand experience of the functioning in the Central government before they begin their administrative career in the States. This is the second year in a row when young IAS officers will work at the Centre on central deputation and not directly move to their states from LBSNAA—the IAS academy where the officers are being trained.

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Slot bidding racket

Prasar Bharati is surprisingly gung-ho about the scheme of rehabilitating private producers who were dropped for not meeting financial parameters and whose litigation resulted in un-estimated loss to exchequer. It was a cartel of Mumbai based producers who made serials in 1990s for DD Metro and DD National who failed to pay their dues. The elongated litigation resulted in nothing and Prasar Bharati succumbed to the diktats of the syndicate of producers, advertisers and some insiders. 

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1507&Name=...by%20the%20way

Empowering Ministers!

A peculiar case of a PCS officer from UP has come to our notice who managed to stay put on deputation to Delhi South MCD, NDMC for 16 years despite dubious credentials. Cases for major penalty proceedings are pending consideration in the Central Vigilance Commission and State Vigilance Commission of UP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the officer’s repatriation to UP as soon as his government took over. And this issue has been further clarified in a recent DoPT circular.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1508&Name=...by%20the%20way

Stories that need to be told

Once a young IAS officer newly empanelled and promoted as Joint Secretary, obviously dissatisfied with his posting in a not very coveted ministry in the Government of India, came to the Cabinet Secretary and complained about the unfair treatment meted out to him by the government. The Cabinet Secretary leaned back in his chair and said, “My boy, who said that government was fair?” The anecdote illustrates the density of decision-making in personnel management in the government.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1473&Name=EYES%20WIDE%20SHUT

Simhastha jinx stalks Shivraj

No Chief Minister in Madhya Pradesh has survived beyond a few months after holding Simhastha in Ujjain, right from the State’s first Chief Minister Ravi Shankar Shukla to the fiery Uma Bharti in 2004. It seems, Shivraj Singh Chouhan too may go the same way as the RSS is reportedly angry with him and the Modi-Shah duo too does not trust him much. So, are the invigorated CBI investigation into Vyapam case and the ouster of RSS Organisation Secretary Arvind Menon, perceived to be close to the Chief Minister, pointers to Shivraj’s end game? Rakesh Dixit reports.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1474&Name=COVER%20STORY

Iron ore heist

The iron ore mining industry in Karnataka grabbed headlines in 2008 when the State’s Lokayukta reported largescale illegal mining in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts. This eventually forced the Supreme Court to intervene and suspend all mining and transportation operations. The ban was lifted in 2011 when the apex court ordered introduction of e-auction mechanism for iron ore in the State, with a ceiling of 30 million tonne per annum, to put an end to indiscriminate mining and ensure fair and transparent pricing.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1475&Name=STATE%20SCAN 

Haryana shows the way

Haryana had been trying various modes of Direct Benefit Transfer over the years—like through money orders—but they were costly and cumbersome. Also, there was no scope of reconciliation. Then, from April 2011, efforts were made for Electronic Benefit Transfer through no-frills savings account, offered by the banks under the Financial Inclusion Scheme, using the Business Correspondent (BC) model. More than 19 lakh bank accounts were created and the scheme was attempted in all the districts of the State.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1476&Name=STATE%20SCAN

Connecting people

Project Rahat was initiated by the District Administration of Udhampur in October 2015 after a ­­­­three-month long participatory planning and consultation exercise as well as technology sharing agreements.Bridges under Project Rahat, spanning up to 30-40 metres, have been initiated near schools in hilly terrain, remote hamlets, traditional paths, livestock movement routes, nomadic migration routes, ration carriage access and approaches to sources of water. In the recent past, a large number of lives were lost, thousands of students deprived of education, livestock perished and livelihood affected due to flooding of rivulets having huge catchment areas. So, bridges were planned at critical points, providing round the year connectivity in villages. 

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1477&Name=STATESCAN

A tough road ahead

Transport is an important part of the infrastructure required for a country’s growth. It brings mobility to people and goods. Transport is intimately connected to the geography of a country as well as its demography. There are many ways of looking at transport: through various modes—road, rail, waterways and airways; through the areas it serves—intra-city and inter-city transport; rural transport; and depending on what is transported—goods and passenger transport. An extension of transport is logistics, which adds dimensions of connectivity, intermodality and integration of physical modes and the processes related to transport activity. Another way of looking at transport is from the perspective of infrastructure and services as two different parts of the overall transport provision.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1478&Name=GOVERNANCE

Purifying the Purifier

For countless millions, the ‘tripathgamini’ Ganga, the story of India’s civilization, is a river of eternal faith and deliverance, a ‘baitarni’. The promise to purify ‘the mother Ganga’, declared one among the 10 most polluted rivers of the world, galvanized the electoral campaign of the 16th Lok Sabha. Elected to power, the new government rechristened the Water Resources Ministry as the Ministry for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (WR, RD and GR) and launched the Namami Gange Programme for rejuvenation of the Ganga in May 2015.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1479&Name=GOVERNANCE

Parliamentary Secretary, an Office of Profit

The President of India, according to media reports has declined assent to the Bill passed by the Delhi Legislative Assembly which sought to exempt retrospectively the post of Parliamentary Secretary from the purview of office of profit.  Articles 102 and 191 debar MPs and MLAs respectively to hold an office of profit under the government. Politics is perhaps the most inventive calling and an insecure executive with its ingenious argumentative power may attempt to peddle oranges as apples.  The defence of Delhi Government that the MLAs appointed by them as Parliamentary Secretaries to Ministers are not holding office of profit and therefore they have not incurred disqualification is a specious argument. The term 'Parliamentary Secretary' does not occur in the Constitution.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1467&Name=Governance

Bringing a paradigm shift

Anil Kumar Lakhina, a 1974-batch Maharashtra cadre IAS, could never imagine that a reorganisation-cum-clean up drive in Ahmednagar collectorate he carried out for nine months in 1982, would lead to coinage of appellations like ‘Lakhina experiment’, ‘Lakhina Pattern’ and ‘Lakhina model’.He never thought that the drive would make him a role model for the entire governance machinery in the country, from Jammu & Kashmir to Kerala and right up to the top of the executive pyramid—Prime Minister of India—and even fetch him a Padma Shri from the President of India.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1480&Name=FIRST%20STIRRINGS

Decriminalising the victims

The facts contained in the book may have faded out of the memory of most since it is based on the events that author revisited after a gap of more than a decade of his 20 years (1983-2003) association at senior level with government of India as frontline operation officer as an Officer Commanding on Internal security duty in field to policy making and planning in Vigilance and Counter Intelligence. But as the saying goes that ‘those who forget the history are condemned to repeat it’, the book is a must read especially for those manning the current establishment since the onus now lies on Modi Government to correct the grave misdeeds committed by the previous regime knowingly or unknowingly to remain in power.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1481&Name=BOOK%20REVIEW

All for a tinsel crown

charan Singh was India’s Prime Minister for one hundred and seventy-one days, but he set a unique record. He sat for less than forty seconds in the Prime Minister’s seat in Parliament. He was a man driven by an obsession. He had to become the Prime Minister no matter what the cost or the humiliation, no matter for how long. So desperate was he to get the crown, if only to satisfy some deep craving in his heart or just to prove his soothsayers right, that  he forgot all his Gandhian principles, all about means and ends. He swallowed all his pride and prejudices, all his allergies toward Indira Gandhi and Nehru.

http://www.gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=1482&Name=BOOK%20EXTRACT