TRUSTED BUREAUCRATS KEEP TAB ON MINISTERS FOR MODI Modi wants to employ all possible means to closely monitor his ministerial colleagues to prevent scams which ruined the UPA regime. With Sunday’s cabinet expansion, Narendra Modi now has a record 65 ministers but the prime minister is still not a worried man as he has his trusted bureaucrats in place to keep tab on them and nip scams in the bud. Ever since the shrewd strategist took up the reins in Delhi in May, the former chief minister of Gujarat who ran his government for 13 years through his dependable bureaucrats, has brought as many as seven senior babus of his home state to the Centre, to replicate the model which made him the longest-serving CM. The exodus of top-drawer IAS officers has created a vacuum in the bureaucracy in the Anandi Patel administration where key departments now have to be handled with additional charge due to shortage of senior officials. “But Modi wants to employ all possible means to closely monitor his ministerial colleagues to prevent scams which ruined the UPA regime,” an insider told Khaleej Times. He added that the 64-year-old PM firmly believed in Chanakya’s words of wisdom and the senior Gujarat-cadre bureaucrats installed in various scam-prone ministries would be his eyes and ears. The latest to move in Delhi was Hasmukh Adhia, a 1981 batch Gujarat cadre IAS, who has taken over as secretary, financial services, in the all-important finance ministry. Two 1980 batch IAS, Rajesh Kishore and H.K. Dash have also moved to the federal government as secretary, inter-state council in ministry of home affairs, and director-general of National Human Rights Commission, respectively. Others from Gujarat who have joined the PMO are Sharma and Sanjay Bhavsar as well as Guruprasad Mohapatra, former Ahmedabad civic chief, now in the ministry of commerce and the prime minister’s new additional principal secretary P.K. Mishra, a retired Gujarat cadre IAS officer who served as principal secretary to Modi when he was chief minister in 2001-04. According to a retired bureaucrat, Modi has closely tested these officers and has a high level of comfort with them. What’s more, he said, Surat police commissioner Rakesh Asthana is likely to be appointed in the CBI while joint commissioner of police, Ahmedabad, A.K. Sharma would also soon shift to Delhi. But the result is that there is a shortage at senior level and additional charges have been given to some officials. For example, two crucial departments — home and revenue — are being handled as additional charge to two babus. Also, here is no full-time managing director for state-owned Gujarat State Petroluem Corporation, the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation, the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd and the Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers Corporation.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 18:16:16 +0000