:: Dilip Cherian

Carrot, not stick, for Northeast babus

Dilip Cherian

March.15 : The Northeast states may have become hot tourist destinations among babus from the rest of the country thanks to complimentary air fares and leave travel incentives, but clearly not among their brethren of the Northeast cadre. The government has always had a problem retaining officers in these states. A good number of N-E babus manage to stay out of their cadre states on Central deputation, foreign assignments or inter-state deputations. Apparently, 52 per cent of the IAS babus of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre are currently working outside the state. In Manipur and Tripura the situation is only marginally better with 49 per cent of the IAS officers posted outside. Most of the N-E babus are reluctant to stay in the region citing "difficulties" like insurgency and law and order among others.

The government has decided to hold out a carrot or rather a monetary lollipop, to lure these babus back. It has notified that all N-E cadre babus who remain in their home cadre will now get an additional 25 per cent of their basic pay as a special allowance. But whether this incentive will result in the prodigals returning to their region remains a big question mark. So far, according to sources, the response to the notification has not been very encouraging. But the government is willing to give its recalcitrant babus more time to consider the carrot.

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Unleashing their instincts

The winds of change seem to have finally entered the cloistered environs of the sarkari boffin community. Kapil Sibal, minister of science and technology, has initiated a move that will be good for business and also good for the boffins toiling away in the labs of such public institutions as Indian Institute of Science (IIS), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). Now desi scientists and inventors can set up companies with private partners and make commercial use of their research. For obvious reasons, the policy is not for scientists working in defence and space-related organisations.

This move, Sibal hopes, will unshackle the scientists and make them less like babus and strive instead for more innovations and discoveries that would ultimately help the economy. Knowledge is clearly not longer just power, but a profitable one at that.

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Cops in job scam

Even as Uttar Pradesh police continues to deal with the aftermath of an earlier recruitment, another job scam to the Central Reserve Paramilitary Force (CRPF) has now come to light. This just goes to show that no the government has not learnt a lesson about the rampant corruption in recruitment for paramilitary forces.

Interestingly, the mastermind behind this scam is a head constable of the CBI, B.B. Chaubey. He is believed to have a network of touts in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. Apart from one of their own, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a DIG and a tout from Lucknow in connection with the scam. These three were allegedly running a racket that recruited over 1,600 people for various posts of constables — including general duty constables, drivers, fitters — into the CRPF. Such scams are also the basis of PC’s worries about the internal security of the country.