:: Dilip Cherian

Maya makes more moves

Dilip Cherian

Augest.23 : After a brief lull, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati is back to babu-bashing! She suspended 16 babus, including four Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, who were allegedly involved in a land allotment scam in Noida. It may have helped that the scam took place during Mulayam Singh’s tenure and that the prime accused, former Noida chairman Rakesh Bahadur, was found guilty by the Central Vigilance Commission in an earlier case. Others who’ve been axed include the then divisional commissioner, Meerut, Devdutt (now retired), Noida CEO Sanjeev Saran, additional CEO K. Ravindra Nayak and deputy CEO C.P. Singh.

There have been major changes too in top echelons of the state police. The chief minister has now appointed two Additional Director Generals of Police, crime and law and order.

Meanwhile, senior IAS officer J.N. Chamber, who was principal secretary to the chief minister, has been moved out of the chief minister’s secretariat and replaced by Anil Sant, who was trade tax commissioner. What will Behanji serve up next? The nervous babus of Uttar Pradesh would like to know.

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Closing doors

Babus wishing to earn more by joining companies in which the government holds a minority stake won’t be able to do so. A new sarkari rule, approved by none other than finance minister P. Chidambaram and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek S. Ahluwalia, states that "there is no rationale" for babus to be posted to companies in which the government’s shareholding is 50 per cent or less.

According to sources, the decision comes in the wake of reports of babus making a beeline for deputation to companies such as the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services and PTC India on fat salaries. The government has now deemed these companies as private entities and, therefore, out of bounds for babus. Moreover, if Central officers want to join such joint-ventures, they will have to do so on a permanent basis.

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Good intent

After a rather frosty relationship with Arjun Singh, Sam Pitroda is bound to have an easier time as head of the National Information Highway Authority (NIHA). Although no formal announcement has been made yet, Mr Pitroda is clearly the chosen one to bridge the digital divide, and promote various e-activities like e-governance, e-learning and e-health for the new(?) government.

Earlier, as head of the National Knowledge Commission, Mr Pitroda had run-ins with Mr Singh over various issues, including reservation for Other Backward Classes in Central educational institutions. All that discord is now firmly in the past. Mr Pitroda, like Nandan Nilekani who heads the Unique Identification Database Authority, will enjoy Cabinet-rank and synergise activities in the telecom and IT sectors.