Govt to remove chiefs of NCW, NDMA, SC/ST Commission and ICCR
After nudging the UPA-appointed Governors to quit, the NDA Government has taken steps to remove members and heads of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and heads of the National Commission for Women, SC/ST Commission and Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
The Government on Thursday also put on compulsory wait list 22 officers, majority of them belonging to the IAS, posted as Private Secretaries (PSs) and Officers on Special Duty (OSDs) in the last UPA Government.
Another nine officers (including two IAS officers), who also worked as PS, advisers and OSDs in the last regime, and have more than one year tenure of their posting left, have been asked to convey their willingness to be posted appropriately by the new
Government, according to an official order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). Eleven other officers, who were PSs and OSDs of various Ministers, have been placed at the disposal of parent cadre as they were from “non-participating services” under the central staffing scheme, it said.
The officers were from the lok Sabha Secretariat, NTPC, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), RAW Allied Services and general central services. However, the name of Alok Singh, a 1995 batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, was not in these orders. Singh’s name was recommended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh for his PS but has been put on hold by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The Government has called for a “vigilance report” of the 22 officers put on compulsory wait and also given them an option to go back to their parent cadre with the approval of Ministers in-charge.
As regards NDMA headed by the Prime Minister, six members of the body were asked to resign including Vice-Chairman M Shashidhar Reddy, former Director-General CISF KM Singh, former Civil Aviation Secretary KN Shrivastava, Major-General (Retired) JK Bansal, former Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre B Bhattacharjee and former Special Director CBI Salim Ali.
“I have sent my resignation on Tuesday to pave the way for the Prime Minister to reconstitute the NDMA. Probably the Prime Minister has a view on it. I am hopeful that the reconstitution process will be completed soon,” Reddy said here. The resignations came after calls were made by Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami to step down in the wake of change of Government. The Vice-Chairman enjoys the rank of a Cabinet Minister while eight other members enjoy the rank of a Union Minister of State.
The three members who have not resigned so far include former Director-General of CRPF JK Sinha, medical expert Muzaffar Ahmed and former Secretary Department of Ocean Development Harsh K Gupta. Sinha said he was away from Delhi and would do the needful once he returns to the Capital.
Reddy was first appointed as member of NDMA in 2005 and promoted as Vice-Chairman in December 2010. A few members were appointed in 2005 and got reappointment after completion of their five-year tenure. Others were appointed in the last two to three years.
Reports indicated that NCW Chairperson Mamta Sharma was also asked to put in her papers. She had contested Assembly elections as a Congress candidate in Rajasthan last December and was defeated. She recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to sack Nihalchand Meghwal, a Union Minister accused by a woman in Jaipur of raping her three years ago. Her term was to end next month.
Meanwhile, Assam Governor JB Patnaik dismissed reports of him resigning and said there was no discussion on the matter during his meeting with Rajnath Singh.
“How many times will I have to say that I am not resigning. There was no talk about my resignation. I have come to wish the new Home Minister,” Patnaik told reporters after his 15-minute meeting with Singh here at North Block on Thursday. He had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.
There were rumours that Patnaik had resigned after meeting President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday. He, however, rubbished such conjectures and said Mukherjee was his old friend and meeting him did not mean he was resigning from the post of Assam Governor.
His assertion came on a day when Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt resigned from the post. “The Governor submitted his resignation papers to President Pranab Mukherjee last night (Wednesday) in New Delhi,” Secretary to Governor, Amitabh Jain said. Dutt had taken charge as the Governor in January 2010.
Home Secretary Anil Goswami had called some of the Governors appointed during UPA Government’s tenure to resign in the wake of change of Government at the Centre and the first one to do so was Uttar Pradesh Governor Bl Joshi who quit on Tuesday.
In Jaipur, Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva’s office denied reports that she received any directive or phone call to quit. She had come to Delhi some days back to pay “planned courtesy” calls to Mukherjee and Modi. Alva’s tenure ends in August.
Sources said that the Centre is considering various options to force the “unwanted Governors” to quit. Among the options that may be under the Government’s consideration is a move to shift some Governors from politically “significant and big” States to what are considered as less significant States so that they are forced to give up on their own.
Another idea that may be put into effect is to allow the CBI to question incumbents MK Narayanan (West Bengal), BV Wanchoo (Goa) as a witness in the investigations into the AgustaWestland helicopter deal.
A similar approach may be adopted in the case of Sheila Dikshit (Kerala), who may be questioned in connection with the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in Delhi when she was Chief Minister.