GRAPEVINE

Bihari babu’s seesaw

Bihar’s administration has seen swift changes over the last two months, as the entire mid-to-top level has been overhauled. Now the exercise is to take hold at the topmost level, and the first to move out from the Bihar Chief Minister’s Office is 1984 batch (retired) IAS Deepak Kumar, who has been removed from the position of Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister. He has now been appointed as the Vice Chairman of the Bihar State Disaster Management Authority. While his replacement could be Sanjay Kumar, who superannuated as Union Education Secretary in June this year, the major switchover being worked on is the Chief Secretary (CS) post, held by 1992 batch Pratayay Amrit, former CM Nitish Kumar’s long-time confidant. Names of top bureaucrats like 1990 batch KK Pathak, now at the Center, 1992 batch Deepak Kumar Singh, currently serving as Principal Secretary to the Bihar Governor, and Harjot Kaur of the same batch are doing the rounds in power corridors for the CS post. Harjot was appointed BPSC chairman last week and could emerge as the front-runner to create history as the first woman CS of the State.

Culture vs urban ministries

A four-year tussle between the Ministries of Culture and Urban Ministries over allotting space for the library in Kartavya Bhawan has now reached the courts after the Supreme Court took a suo motu case. The Ministry of Culture was protesting the lack of space in shifting the library from Shastri Bhawan to Kartavya Bhawan. The space allotted for 8.5 lakh books was so small, and Urban Ministry officers wanted to sell the old books to old-book vendors, the Ministry of Culture accused them. They accused the architects and civil engineers of allotting less space in the building to initiate the sale of old books to the Daryaganj vendor gang. With Shastri Bhawan to be pulled down as part of the Central Vista revamp plan, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and Central Public Works Department (CPWD) are yet to find space for one of the oldest Union Government libraries, founded in 1891, and its second-largest, after the National Library, Kolkata.

TVK treads cautiously

The new regime in Tamil Nadu, actor-turned-politician Vijay-led TVK Government, has reached a tacit understanding with the NDA Government at the Centre. Seeking to foster cordial Centre-State relations, a core advisory team of two former bureaucrats, IAS (retd) U Sagayam and IPS (retd) officer M Ravi, is advising the TVK leadership on streamlining State security, law enforcement, and administrative structures, and both are in direct touch, keeping in good humour, with Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan. Grapevine has it that the move is being seen as a pragmatic approach for the novice TVK Government, where Congress is in alliance in the State, to meet the expectations of the masses and enhance the developmental capacity of the Government. TVK was a big surprise, coming to power by trampling the biggies of the regional DMK and AIADMK in Dravidian culture.