Changes in the offing?

Right now the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) must be the busiest agency with its sleuths investigating just about every major scam that has hit the headlines in recent weeks. But there is another exercise underway within India’s premier investigating agency — the hunt for a new director. The present director, Ashwini Kumar, is

retiring at the end of the month. Interestingly, the government is also in the midst of finalising the names of new chiefs for the Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing as current heads Rajiv Mathur and K.C. Verma are also on the verge of retirement.
Though some still believe that Mr Kumar may get an extension, this view is a weakening one now since several senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers are actively vying to succeed him. Among the front-runners for the CBI chief’s kursi are National Investigation Agency chief S.C. Sinha, a 1975 batch IPS officer from Haryana; director-general of Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force R.K. Bhatia, a 1974 batch IPS from Uttar Pradesh; director-general of Railway Protection Force Ranjit Sinha from the Bihar cadre; and Madhya Pradesh DGP S.K. Raut. Amar Pratap Singh, special director CBI, is also in the running for the top post.
Though extensions for senior bureaucrats have become almost a norm in the United Progressive Alliance dispensation, only the Prime Minister’s Office now knows, and with Prithviraj Chavan gone, who knows what the eventual answer will be!

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Under scanner
The Adarsh scam may have claimed a chief minister’s gaddi but the bureaucrats who were involved in giving clearances to housing society remain unscathed. The government, sensing the heightened public ire, is unlikely to allow the tainted babus who gave clearances to the housing society to get away. Among his first acts after taking over as chief minister, Prithviraj Chavan met with senior babus and delivered an unambiguous message: perform or face the axe.
Cynics may dismiss this as a typical knee-jerk reaction, but Mr Chavan’s brisk, business-like though measured and systematic approach signals that the days of tainted babus in Maharashtra may well be numbered. A similar signal was sent by environment minister Jairam Ramesh in Delhi who said the babus who flouted rules in the Adarsh scam would face prosecution by the Centre as well as the state government. State information commissioner Ramanand Tewari and state human rights commission member Subhash Lala own flats in the building. But right now, given the wide sweep of the investigations, babus in the various departments involved in giving clearances to the housing society are under intense scrutiny. Now, let’s wait and see if Mr Chavan stays with his message.