Whispers Forum

I agree. There are still a large number of officers at seniormost levels, who are the agents of UPA, and are trying to sabotage things, including several retired ones, who have been given post retirement jobs. Their activities will increase with the coming general elections, for obvious reasons. Their number will not be high, and the government would do well to screen these senior officers thoroughly, especially those in important /sesitive positions. This will ensure cleaning the dirt in time.
S Chatterjee
Encashment of half pay leave (HPL) on superannuation
One of my friend superannuated recently from Maharatna steel PSU. He has 160 days EL and 140 days HPL. The great finance department calculated encashment for 160 days EL and HPL commuted to 70 days which is equivalent to 230 days leave salary. as per DPE OM no.2(14)/12-DPE(WC)-GL-iv/14 dated 7th feb 2014, the cash equivalent payable for half pay leave would be equal to leave salary as admissible for half pay plus DA to make up the shortfall in earned leave. No commutation of half pay leave would be permissible.
A Retd Executive

You quoted Charles de Gaulle in This is History (818): Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop. And you put photograph of Sushma Swaraj next to the quote. Actually, Foreign Ministers are useful and it is the Ambassadors who are useless. With modern communications, Foreign Ministers can talk to each other directly. Moreover a country does not need an Ambassador to know what is happening in the other country. Other methods are better and more reliable. It is only because of hysteresis certain things like Fax Machines and snail mail still exist. Diplomats’ job is reduced to drowning in every drop of alcohol.
Prof. N.C. Saxena
Postings, promotions decided by contractors
I know the postings, promotions in PSBs and PSU's are decided by contractors and influenced.
A Retired Executive
Ayer should become citizen of Pakistan
My advice to Mani Shankar Ayer is that he should become a citizen of Pakistan as he gets so much love from them while fellow Indians are his enemies. It was really sickening to hear him praising Pakistan and running down his own country on their soil and that too when coffins of six jawans and a civilian killed by Pakistan sponsored terrorist strike on an army camp in Jammu were being ferried to their weeping heartbroken relatives in their respective towns and villages. The gentleman was enjoying the hospitality of Pakistanis and showering fullsome praise on that country. Yes he has lot of friends there .It seems during his stint as diplomat there, he was busy making friends rather than focusing on Indo-Pak relations. He and his likes FOP (friends of Pakistan) need to be dealt with properly.
Aarti Khosla

The Appellant sought information regarding the number of seats allowed by the CBSE to B.D. Public School for intake in Class IX and XI and issues related thereto. The PIO provided the student description furnished by the School as per its online application no. EX-02558-1516 and informed that no further information was available with them. The CIC observed that the Appellant had raised very pertinent issues regarding permissions granted by the CBSE for maximum student intake by the School which concerned the interest of the public at large. The CIC felt that periodic and up-to-date disclosure of such information could render the entire admission process transparent since the public would be informed about maximum intakes allowed to a school and take an informed decision in pursuing the admission process. The CIC advised the CBSE to instruct the schools affiliated to the Board to periodically suo motu disclose all information regarding the Student Intake and other such related information by them to the Board as also upload details on their website keeping in view the spirit of the RTI Act, 2005 and the larger public interest involved in the matter.
Comments
Schools are the centres of learning and one of the most important sections of public life which should voluntarily disclose the information as per section 4. This decision would enable more parents to demand disclosure from schools.
Citation: Mr. Sanjeev Kumar v. CBSE, Delhi in Appeal No.:-CIC/CBSED/A/2017/195101-BJ, Date of Decision : 16.02.2018
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is the co-author of the books: RIGHT TO INFORMATION – LAW AND PRACTICand PIO’s guide to RTI. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at - http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/

Poor knowledge on this front. Only those promoted as Secretaries i.e. who reach the last ladder are entitled to Diplomatic Passports. No one else has ever been issued. All these seasoned diplomats do give back to the society in the shape of free consultancy to MEA and its allied organizations till they survive.
Harish Kumar
PNB scam
It is shameful that PNB has given recently the vigilance award. Not only PNB Vigilance award has been given to most corrupt organisations. When complaints were given to vigilance about a Director Technical in a PSU, no body bothered.
A Retired PSU Executive
GM level officer paying price for action against senior officers
He has submitted his representation to CVC for justice in line with the Protection conferred by CVC on the Vigilance Officers, with copies to PMO & Cabinet Secretary for necessary action.
Bibhuti
Budget for good governance
Union Budget 2018 has been presented with number of good news and not so good news. Revenue is utmost important to run various welfare schemes and meet Govt. expenditure. Direct tax collection is equally important and Govt. must continue to move towards simplification of tax rules. Good relief has been given to Sr. citizens but Govt. should extend some relief to Sr. citizen women specially house wives and retired teachers etc. whose income is less than 5 lakhs to be exempted from scrutiny. This is one of the progressive step. Good compliance is seen from salaried class as they do not have any option except to pay the required taxes. But the Govt. is clueless and no methodology whatsoever is available to assess the real income of other category like professionals (doctors, lawyers, contractors, artists etc), traders, business men etc. and in result is not good tax compliance as per report. Govt. should workout the strategies and methods to find out the real income of these categories by redeploying the staff instead of scrutinising the cases who have deposited 2 lakhs of rupees or purchased MF of 50,000/ and invested 1 lakh in equity. One more gray area for IT department is high tech crypto currency exchanges and people dealing in this area like bitcoin cash etc. This is not simple to find out the people involved and money being transacted so Govt. should take this area very seriously. Hard tax money collected should also not to be used for meeting NPAs and supporting loss making PSUs. Let them stand their own. They draw huge salary and perks. Make NGOs and Party fund taxable to meet budget deficit. Recovery from big 1000 loan defaulters is sufficient to meet fiscal deficit. With regard to GST, if it is implemented properly, it will meet most of the Govt. requirement as it is paid by every one. People still buy and sell products without bringing into their book of accounts and "kachchi Parchi" works in most of wholesale and retail market. This is to be changed once GST is implemented properly, the income of individuals can also be assessed properly. Govt. has to find out the areas which requires more attention and deploy the staff accordingly to achieve the objective. Good luck for 2018 budget.
Naveen

The political executive headed by PM Modi is expected to invoke seditionary laws to rein in watermouths like the Congis, Commies, Owaissis, Mani Shankar Aiyar and their likes.
“Dil ke phaphole jal uthe seene ke daag se,
Is ghar ko aag lag gayi ghar ke chiraag se ”
A small-time politician called Sandeep Dikshit must be put under house arrest for speaking against the country, its Armed forces, calling Gen Rawat as " sadak kaa Gundaa" How is he still having a free run despite serious allegations of corruption in CWG scams ? The alleged funding of such anti-nationals by the ISI for dividing indian muslims and hindus, must be investigated. Giving them a long rope by the Modi sarkaar
A K Saxena (A retd civil servant)

Apropos "DOPT' breaking News" by AK Saxena, it is quite funny to ask the applicants for Vigilance Commissioners' posts to write an essay of 300 words to judge their suitability. Strange things are happening in bureaucracy. For empanelment and promotion a system adopted by German military during World War II (and long given up by them and USA which copied it) known as 360 degree route is resorted to. That means two persons a senior and a junior from your service are asked for their views about the you irrespective of the fact whether you have ever worked with him or her. A bad feedback which could never be objective becomes your undoing. A junior who himself may be a bad worker and reprimanded by officer at some point has the power to spoil your career howsoever an outstanding committed officer you are. Who are being asked to opine about him , the officer does not know. This lack of transparency is highly illegal and malafide. This practice has resulted in many brilliant officers being left out and not so good officers getting in. Does it not lead to corruption as those adept at networking can always find out who have been asked for an opinion about them. In one case mentioned to me sometime back a lady officer who was not empanelled as joint secretary came to know that her senior who was approached for an opinion about her was rebuffed by her for trying to sexually harass her. Phew on this 360 and phew for one whose brainwave this system is. The bureaucracy it seems is under siege. Biometric attendance is fine but then officers and staff are expected to put in extra hours after office. There are ministers who call meetings only at 9 P.M or even 10 P.M which go on till midnight. The latest one I read in a newspaper the other day is to monitor the movement of officers through a GPS like device. This certainly does not lead to good governance. You have to motivate the employees to give their best instead of scaring harassing and spying on them.
Aarti Khosla
Bureaucrats in all States creating gap
Not only in Rajasthan but the bureaucrats in all States are creating a gap between the people and the Government. This applies to the diplomats as well, because the voice of the diaspora is silenced before it reaches the government.
Zile Singh

The appellant wanted the basic procedure following which warning/red alert regarding weather conditions is issued by the Indian Meteorological Department. He sought the list of dates and details of all warnings/red alert issued by the department, the reason of warning/red alert ex. Heavy rain, earthquake, cyclone, storm, etc, the place for which it was issued, and whether it turned to be true or false. As the information was voluminous, the PIO sought a clarification from the appellant regarding the specific area and period pertaining to which the appellant wanted the information. The CIC directed the PIO to provide a detailed report to the appellant explaining the procedure through which such alerts are issued by the Department and number of such alerts issued in 2017 that turned out to be true and number of alerts that failed.
Comments
Whenever a voluminous information is sought, the PIO should seek a clarification from the applicant to narrow down the request.
Citation: Chetan Kothari v. Indian Meteorological Department in CIC/IMETD/A/2017/180721, Date of Decision: 01.02.2018
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is the co-author of the books: RIGHT TO INFORMATION – LAW AND PRACTICand PIO’s guide to RTI. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at - http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/

The media has reported leakage of Aircel Maxis status report much before the same was submitted to the Supreme Court on Jan 13,2018.The document was recovered during the raid at P Chidambaram’s residence by the CBI on Jan 3,2018 i.e. 10 days before submission to SC.
An officer of CBI allegedly leaked the report to P Chidambaram former finance minister. This confirms the existence of moles. Highly disturbing.
There must be hundreds of moles planted by the Congress-led UPA during its misrule. Open secret. Various sensitive organizations like the CBI, ED, IT,IB, RAW, NTRO and, last but not the least, the bureaucracy-at-large are infested with the “ caged parrots” of the erstwhile political dispensation.
Private detective agencies are professional enough to make easy inroads into government departments/agencies to access secret documents. These are, more often than not, manned by retired personnel of government agencies. This explains the drop in conviction/ success rates of anti- corruption and intelligence agencies
PM Modi is expected to take the leakage from CBI seriously. A thorough cleansing is needed across the board.
A K Saxena (A retd civil servant)

There are a lot of contracts like that of contractual labour which need to be modified in the light of the Right to Information Act. However, most of the government organisations are oblivious of it and as a result, the RTI Applicants are unable to get the information which is rightfully their due. In all the outsourcing work, the records must be owned by the public authority.
Samay
Govt should investigate
Govt should investigate the two years temporary transfers, promotions, foreign training since 2001 onwards in SAIL, where the price tag for these starts from Rs 2 lakhs on wards to few crores in this steel PSU.
A Visitor

Applicants for Vigilance Commissioner's post in the CVC are required to support their applications with a 300-word essay to prove their " hollowness or otherwise ".
Essays will be evaluated by the infamous dynasty of bureaucracy.
Innovative. Out-of-box thinking of DOP&T manned by babus. .
Writers , Journalists and Professors in great demand as proxy writers.
A K Saxena ( A retd civil servant)
Details be enclosed with bills
Since the payment of contract employees is required to be made only after receipt of attendance and details of deposit of EPF and ESI contribution, the details must be available with bills admitted for payment.
Mehar
No need to divulge parent cadre
There is no need to divulge the parent cadre of officers posted in Indian Missions Abroad from outside the MEA
Zile Singh