Dilli Ka Babu: Bihar’s talent hunt

Nitish Kumar’s Bihar win continues to resound across the world, especially among the alumni of Ivy League universities and our own IITs and IIMs. Mr Kumar’s ambitious Bihar Vikas Mission has evoked a lot of interest from the alumni who are queuing up to offer their talent to his government.

According to sources, the state government has received an impressive 3,700 applications for 100 positions in the project in department such as management, finance, research and communications. The heavy influx of applications from high-profile alumni has put the government in a quandary. Clearly Bihar officials are surprised at the response given that the tenure is only for 11 months and the salary offered is nowhere near what these applicants can get elsewhere.

The mission’s screening committee, comprising chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, Cabinet Secretariat principal secretary Brajesh Mehrotra, finance department principal secretary Ravi Mittal, other senior bureaucrats and two members of Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna, are now pondering what selection process to adopt. Clearly there’s too much talent to handle.

CBI vs AAP

When the Central Bureau of Investigation raided Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office late last year while reportedly investigating corruption charges against his principal secretary, Indian Administrative Service officer Rajendra Kumar, it created a storm. The Aam Aadmi Party government, which is pitted in a relentless political slugfest with the Centre, had then accused the Modi sarkar of wreaking vendetta upon the state government. The CBI vehemently denied the charge, but now it appears that the Delhi government has reason to feel vindicated.

A special CBI court has sent a reference to the Delhi high court to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the CBI’s investigating officer in the corruption case. It also stated that the agency “flouted procedures with impunity” and for being “conspicuously ambiguous” in investigating the IAS officer and other officials.

That’s pretty serious stuff, coming from the special court. But CBI officials are nonchalant about what the court had to say about its investigating team. The agency is now planning to seek relief from the high court “in the appropriate manner”. That’s for later. For now, the Delhi government seems to have gained the upper hand and could keep the advantage.

Perks of being a babu

The perks of being “heaven-born” perhaps include not paying house rent for years if one chooses to. And when “outed”, it also helps that a sympathetic state government often decides to waive off 75 per cent of the rent arrears. Clearly this is a privilege, among many others, that only babus (and perhaps netas) enjoy in our country. Recently, eyebrows were raised when the Telangana government provided “relief” to some 44 serving and retired All-India Service (AIS) officers for defaulting on the rent on their government-provided accommodation.

Sources say that the state government rules stipulate that any AIS officer wishing to retain the government accommodation for personal purposes after transfer has to pay a rent of Rs 15,000 per month for the first two months and Rs 20,000 per month subsequently. But things were allowed to slide until these babus collectively owed the sarkar Rs 1.50 crore in rent arrears. Among these “dignitaries” are DIG rank senior Indian Police Service officer P. Hari Kumar, R.K. Meena, V.S. Mann, P. Umapathi, G. Sudheer Babu and others.

Obviously the news of the rent waiver has not gone down well with civil activists who now plan to raise the issue with chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. Watch this space for updates.