Following a PMO directive that the NDA Ministers cannot have babus who had served as personal staff to UPA Ministers, Ministries are obtaining undertaking from staff to rule out any violation of the order. This is because many of the staff have at some point or other been associated with some Minister of the Congress-led Government in the past. It is learnt that the Union Culture Ministry has already set in the process to take such undertakings.
“The undertaking will be part of the service record of the staff being appointed with the Ministry’s office,” said sources in the Ministry.The move came following a directive from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). A circular issued by DoPT Joint Secretary Mamta Kundra said, “It has been decided by the competent authority that any officer/official/private person who has worked earlier in the personal staff of a Minister in any capacity for any duration may not be appointed in the personal staff of Ministers in the present Government.”
An official said that there is a great deal of confusion as to whether the directive applies to the last ten years or only the tenure of the outgoing UPA-II. “We don’t want to take any risk, so it is better to take such undertaking from the staff,” he said.
After the PMO directive, several Ministers, including Home Minister Rajnath Singh, had to shift out their personal staff. On Monday, the Home Minister finally got his OSD when IAS officer Nitesh Jha was appointed to that post. Jha, a 2002 batch Uttarakhand cadre officer, was earlier working with the State Government’s Education department. This would be 37-year-old officer’s first deputation to the Centre.
The appointment of IPS officer Alok Singh as Home MInister’s Private Secretary was put on hold following the PMO directive. Alok had served as PS to External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid in the UPA Government. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju has also finally got a Private Secretary, Vikas Anand, a 2002-batch IPS officer, who has replaced IPS officer Abhinav Kumar.
Kumar, who was Rijiju’s first choice, had been with former Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor in the UPA Government. He had started functioning with the new Minister but the Government directive on June 19 forced his ouster.
Meanwhile, Intelligence Bureau clearance has also been made mandatory for non-Government persons to join as any Minister’s staff as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to a Minister. In a directive, the DoPT has asked the Ministries to send a proposal, including approval from the concerned Minister, willingness of the person to be appointed as OSD and educational qualification certificates (attested by an officer not below the level of Under Secretary) to it.
Besides, it has been made mandatory to send to the DoPT the biodata or earlier service details of the candidate duly attested by the Minister concerned, post creation details with the approval of DoPT and the Ministry of Finance, IB report and police report on verification of character and antecedents for processing requests for appointment of private person as OSD, it said.
An Intelligence Bureau (IB) clearance is not needed in case a Government official being appointed as OSD to a Minister, according to the directive. As per procedure, the final appointment of OSD will be made after the approval of Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC).