Former home secretary CG Somaiah writes a book on stand-alone honest officers

YET another former bureaucrat has penned his experiences as an administrator claiming that honest officers are often beaten by the system. The book titled, “The Honest Always Stand Alone”, written by former home secretary CG Somaiah, was released on Thursday in New Delhi by former president APJ Abdul Kalam.

The book is a repository of many anecdotes of Rajiv Gandhi era, the most interesting one being Police Commissioner of Delhi Ved Marwah’s “security breach” as his car had “intruded” in the route of the visiting Russian Prime Minister. According to the book, then home minister Buta Singh wanted to suspend him, but Somaiah had prevented any punitive action against Marwah and convinced then home minister.

Starting his IAS career as an Assistant Collector in Orissa to the hectic days of fighting terrorism in Punjab as home secretary, Somaiah had a long way as an effective administrator. He also served as Central Vigilance Commissioner and had a six-year tenure as Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

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Cabinet secretary to head search committee for CMDs of MTNL and BSNL

The appointment of CMDs of state-run telcos MTNL and BSNL will be done through a search-cum-selection committee headed by the cabinet secretary, and not by the usual process of PSEB. The other members of the committee are DoPT secretary, telecom secretary, Prof. Ashok Jhunjunwala of IIT, Chennai, Prof Sameer Barua of IIM, Ahmedabad and Prof N Balakrishnan, of IISc, Bangalore. The selection process is expected to be completed within a month.

Action and Appointments

a) The ACC has approved proposal for extension of Central deputation tenure of PG Dhar Chakraborty, a 1980 batch Jammu and Kashmir cadre IAS and Executive Director, National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) under the Ministry of Home Affairs for the period upto March 31, 2011.

b) The ACC has approved the proposal of the department of commerce for the appointment of Pravir Kumar, a 1982 batch UP cadre IAS, presently working as joint secretary in the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to the post of Development Commissioner (joint secretary level), SEZ, Dahej at Ahmedabad (Gujarat).

c) Sanjay Kumar Rakesh, a 1990 batch Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS, presently working as director in the department of rural development has been appointed as joint secretary in that department.