Dire straits
Filling up vacancies in the Indian Police Service (IPS) never seemed to be the government’s priority. According to its own figures, there is a shortage of 1,477 IPS officers. While the home ministry has been painfully slow in filling
vacancies, the Prime Minister’s Office has reportedly stepped in to expedite the process. The PMO has now cleared the proposal that will allow young Army officers to compete with state and paramilitary officers to join the IPS.
Accordingly, the Union Public Service Commission will conduct a limited competitive examination for assistant commander and DSP-rank officers beginning next year. Perhaps now the government can turn its attention to filling the huge number of vacancies in the various intelligence services. Apparently, the Intelligence Bureau alone has nearly 10,000 vacancies across the country!
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Getting tough
Babus who flout government rules are now finding it harder to get away with their errant ways. To enforce transparency, the government had mandated babus to submit their annual property returns on January 1 every year. While majority of the IAS officers complied, there are still a few — 208 IAS officers, according to the ministry of personnel — who have not submitted these details, even after the government extended the deadline several times.
According to sources, while the babus have no qualms about submitting their immovable property returns to the authorities, they are uncomfortable with the government placing their personal information in the public domain. Nevertheless, the minister of state for personnel, V. Narayanasamy, is quite clear that these 208 officers may be denied vigilance clearance and therefore cannot be considered for promotion or empanelment for senior positions. Whether he will act on this threat remains to be seen.
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A longer wait
The long wait for the appointment of the new ONGC chief just got longer. But given the current climate, the government obviously wishes to avoid another controversial appointment by clearing the name of Sudhir Vasudeva for the position. Despite a clean chit from the Central Vigilance Commission and the petroleum ministry, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) had refused to accept his candidature due to alleged charges of corruption against him.
Now apparently Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked for a fresh vigilance clearance for the babu before taking a call on his appointment. Routine precaution or another sign of the government’s indecision? Whatever, the reason, this delay simply means that ONGC, which has been headless since January, is unlikely to gets its new chief anytime soon.
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