Waiting for work
Even after a month of his appointment as Additional Secretary BR Sharma, a J&K cadre IAS officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs, is still waiting for work to be allocated to him. Sharma was appointed in the MHA against the vacancy created by a sudden and unscheduled transfer of M Gopal Reddy at the end of March. Reddy, a 1985-batch officer, was prematurely repatriated to his cadre following a decision of the Appointment Committee of Cabinet Affairs. Reddy came to the office and attended two important meeting in the MHA on that day when he was told he has been repatriated to his home cadre with immediate effect.
Defence men to shoot
Photo division of the Defence Ministry will pay a major role this year in capturing the various moments of high-profile International Yoga Day on June 21. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take part in the main event at lucknow, where Defence Ministry lens men will be in action. Having acquire long experience in action photography, be it fighter jet flying or war drills, these photographers are designated to be in the lead to record various moments. The photographs taken by them will be later used for various Government schemes.
Sushma’s way
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has an interesting take on the distribution of work to her Deputy Ministers. Speaking on the completion of three years of the NDA Government, Swaraj said that she carefully distributed work to former Army Chief Gen (Retired) VK Singh and former journalist MJ Akbar keeping in mind their strong points. All operational and field work was given to the ‘General’ while the ‘journalist’ Minister was given work. She patted Singh’s back for rescuing thousands of Indians from Gulf countries and lauded Akbar for supporting Singh by holding talks with foreign leaders on related issues.
Babu unwilling to go home
A Joint Secretary in a crucial Central Ministry has proceeded on a two-month leave after he was asked to go back to his home cadre Uttar Pradesh. Reluctant to return to UP, which is now ruled by a tough task master like Yogi Adityanath, the 1991 batch IAS, Bl Meena, has also applied for an extension to the Department of Personnel and Training. While his Minister Thavar Chand Gehlot is believed to have recommended Meena’s extension, the Social Welfare Department Secretary G latah Rao has asked DoPT for a replacement for Meena. Grapevine has it that the PMO is weighing the options as how to toss Meena between Centre and UP.
No policy
After taking charge of his Ministry in Uttar Pradesh, a Minister was shocked to find there was no ‘transfer and promotion policy’ in the health sector. The twin-issues were until now being dealt with at random without any rationale. “It is after lot of efforts that the file dealing with transfer and promotion was found and dusted off,” said those close to the Minister. Until the policy is implemented, the Minister is not likely to get any relief from the morning queues of aspirants transfer and postings.
Mission Venkaiah
Union Housing, Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has decided to hold meeting with State Chief Ministers in their States to review all centrally sponsored schemes of his Ministries such as smart cities and housing for all by 2020. Naidu, along with a team of senior officials of Housing and Urban Development, has already visited 21 States and Union Territories to speed up such projects. Officials say that the Minister is under pressure as results are not been visible on the ground level.
Cautious EC
After Subhash Chandra and RK Anand controversy during the Rajya Sabha elections in Haryana last year, the Election Commission has decided to use a special violet ink pen for the upcoming Presidential elections on June 17. The election would be held on ballot papers and special ink pen would be given to voters inside polling booth. A high level team of Election Commission had recommended using of a special pen for such election. During Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana, several votes of Congress members were found invalid as lawmakers use ball-pen with different ink to cast their vote.
Yoga awareness
In the run-up to the International Yoga Day to be celebrated on June 21, the Union Ayush Ministry is leaving no stone unturned to promote yoga particularly among youth and children. It has launched a unique campaign to generate awareness about yoga with the help of attractive and eye-catching mascots and flash mobs called YogMobs. The campaign is underway at Delhi NCR, Haryana and lucknow. The first one was held at a mall in Rohini two days ago where public were found to be enjoying selfie moments with mascots.