Dilli Ka Babu
House for ‘babu’
Austerity is for the proles. When it comes to gifting themselves salary hikes, lal battis and swanky addresses, politicians and bureaucrats are among the first to rush in. Sarkari housing in Delhi has taken a giant leap with the completion of swanky new bungalows and luxury apartments in East Moti Bagh, the latest address for the nation’s power elite.
With senior officials, like principal secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterjee, home secretary R.K. Singh, defence secretary Shashi Kant Sharma and senior Congress leader and chairman of the SC/ST commission P.L. Punia, joined by secretaries for rural development, steel, mines, road and transport & highways, the East Moti Bagh enclave outdoes the existing sarkari residential colonies by a mile. While none would deny the need to create more accommodation for babus, the scale of opulence in the heart of the capital flies in the face of any call for austerity.
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Baba’s crusade
It now seems appropriate that yoga guru Ramdev will tour Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh during the proposed third phase of his anti-corruption crusade. Madhya Pradesh seems to be emerging as the crucible of corruption, given the high-profile cases that have come to light in recent months and the staggering amount of illicit wealth amassed by Madhya Pradesh cadre officials. One of last year’s biggest stories was that of an IAS “power couple”, Arvind and Tinu Joshi, whose assets were valued at a whopping `363 crore! In fact, the taxmen have just asked the corruption-tainted couple to cough up `135 crore as tax!
Delhi is currently talking about the state’s health director A.N. Mittal. Apparently, the state Lokayukta has recovered huge sums of undisclosed cash and documents pertaining to his real estate assets. Apparently, the value of Mr Mittal’s land assets is more than `50 crore! So just how large is the loot in Madhya Pradesh?
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Ripples in J&K
State Cabinet meetings are usually humdrum affairs and hardly make news. But Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah recently sent ripples through the state administration when his government gave the go-ahead for regularisation of ad hoc, contractual and consolidated employees in the state health and medical education departments. Creating employment opportunities in J&K has always been a challenge for the state government, but Mr Abdullah should find this decision of his government going down well with the aam aadmi.
At the same meeting, the state Cabinet’s decision to transfer 10 senior IAS officers became a mere footnote to the proceedings, even though those transferred include special secretary in the chief minister’s secretariat Zaffar Ahmad, who has been named director, information, J&K.
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