Govt curtails cabinet secretary’s power to scrutinize complaints against secretaries, received by CVC

IN A major bid to strip off the powers of India’s cabinet secretary in handling complaints against secretaries of the government of India, the government issued a corrigendum to an earlier circular thereby allowing Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to look into the complains including the anonymous ones against the secretaries. According to earlier circular, such complaints would first be scrutinized by a group headed by the cabinet secretary which could even close such a complaint if it is found to be frivolous.

Now, the cabinet secretary will be able to scrutinize only those complaints against secretaries which come to DoPT or PMO. But if any person sends the complaint to CVC, the cabinet secretary would not be able to scrutinize it, let alone closing it. Significantly, the cabinet secretary is the senior most secretary of the government. The current cabinet secretary, an officer of 1970 batch is six years senior to the junior most secretaries of the government of India who are from 1976 batch.

Also, according to the new amendments, the group headed by cabinet secretary would be able to look into those complaints given by the CVC, and not all complaints received by the CVC.

Read the CIRCULAR, dated March 8, 2010 containing the corrigendum

Action and Appointments

a) Naba Kumar Das, a 1976 batch Assam cadre IAS, and currently a special secretary in the department of agriculture and cooperation under the ministry of agriculture has been repatriated to his cadre.

b) The ACC has approved the proposal of the ministry of home affairs for inter-cadre transfer of Ms Nitasha Guria, a 2008 batch Orissa cadre IPS from Orissa cadre to Bihar cadre.

c) Samirendra Chatterjee, a 1976 batch IAS, presently Member Secretary, National Commission for Women has been appointed as Central Provident Fund Commissioner, Employees Provident Fund Organisation in place of Udai Kumar Varma, a 1976 batch MP cadre IAS.

d) Zohra Chatterji, a 1979 batch UP cadre IAS, presently joint secretary in the ministry of Information and Broadcasting has been appointed as Member Secretary, National Commission for Women in place of Samirendra Chatterjee.

Ex-Babu Tracker

T Nanda Kumar, a 1972 batch Jharkhand cadre retired IAS has been appointed as chairman of the committee on optimization of fertilizer usage, set up under the Cabinet Secretariat. The appointment of T Nanda Kumar as Chairman will be on re-employment on contract basis for a period of six months from the date of assumption of charge with the rank, pay, status and other entitlements of secretary to the Government of India.
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1972 batch officers continue to grab key posts