Dilli ka babu
Quick fix
The seemingly never-ending revelations in this season of scams obviously haven’t done the image of the civil service any good, considering many of the tainted babus were pretty high up in the pecking order. There is now growing concern about the decline in the civil services, especially among ex-bureaucrats who have now moved the Supreme Court to seek a fix.
Most observers agree that it’s a rare move; former Cabinet secretary T.S.R. Subramanian and 82 former babus, including retired election commissioners, diplomats, chief secretaries and police officers, have jointly urged the Supreme Court to seek implementation of administrative reforms. Besides Mr Subramanian, sources say, the writ petition filed by the babus also bears the names of former chief election commissioners T.S. Krishnamurthy and N. Gopalaswami, former Central Bureau of Investigation director Joginder Singh and former top cop and Manipur Governor Ved Marwah, among others.
Of course, these babus are not the only ones exercised over the lack of good governance, but hope their collective clout will work where others may have failed. Besides, say babu-watchers, with the current aggressive mode of the apex court in the light of some of is recent decisions, there is reason to hope that the court will, again, act strongly and ensure that the pace of reforms is quickened. At least, the ex-babus hope so.
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Who’s to blame?
The times clearly are not good for some of our public sector enterprises. In recent days some Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) chiefs have made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The biggest shocker, of course, was the arrest of former chairman and managing director of National Aluminium Company Ltd A.K. Srivastava and his wife on charges of bribery. Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths continue their investigations, another case has come to light in which apparently coal ministry babus have been preventing the CBI from registering a case against D.C. Garg, head of the state-owned Western Coalfields Ltd. despite recommendations from vigilance officers.
The CBI, according to sources, has sufficient evidence from the report of chief vigilance officer, for action against Mr Garg for allegedly favouring a private contractor and causing huge loss to the coal PSU. Apparently, a senior CBI officer wrote to coal secretary C. Balakrishnan nearly a year ago seeking permission to prosecute Mr Garg. The file, sources add, has not moved since then, despite several reminders, including one from CBI director A.P Singh. But now, with questions being raised about the “neutrality” of coal babus, how long can they continue to “shield” the tainted PSU chief? Any guesses?
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