Pressure tactics
It’s not surprising to learn that babus spare no efforts to wrangle a stint abroad. The chief attraction of course is the special allowance that can range from `70,000 to `1.15 lakh per month. But the ministry for external affairs (MEA) is clearly unhappy with the situation since it bears the brunt of the “pressure” from powerful babus and politicians.
Deciding enough’s enough, recently, the MEA has sent a list of 945 officials to chief secretaries of states asking for punitive action against them for exerting inappropriate pressure on the ministry for a posting in Saudi Arabia for Haj this year. According to sources, Sanjay Singh, secretary east, has written a letter to all the states saying that exerting extraneous pressure on the MEA is in violation of service rules, besides being against the principle of “fairness and transparency”. All very well, but who’s going to tell the netas?
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Tightening screws
A slew of steps to tackle corruption are clearly the lingering effect of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign. Even before Mr Hazare’s Jan Lokpal stir, Bihar took the lead by attaching properties of corrupt babus. Now the Central government plans to implement a recommendation of the Group of Ministers on corruption under which babus could lose part of their pension!
According to sources, babus docked for minor corruption will lose 10 per cent of their pension. In instances of major corruption, babus will face not just a 20 per cent cut in their pension but also compulsory retirement! Meanwhile, in the capital, the Delhi government has tightened the noose against shirking babus who do not deliver services on time to the public.
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Feeling blue
The Himachal Pradesh IAS Officers Association recently passed a resolution expressing its unhappiness at the appointment of babus from the “lesser” services to posts traditionally held by IAS officers. The concern is obvious: if more cadre posts are doled out to officers from the police or forest services, where will it all end?
The IAS brethren have reason to fear that their tribe is currently not in favour with the powers that be in the hill state. As of now, at least seven cadre posts are held by non-IAS officers. Interestingly, there were rumours that a senior IPS officer would be named the new principal home secretary. While that didn’t happen, the IAS ire is also due to the manner in which a senior IAS officer, Manisha Sridhar, was treated by the government, virtually forcing her to resign from the service.
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