2nd Generation: Will telecoms bureaucrats including those of NDA time be questioned?

AS TWO former telecom officials, 1973 batch retired IAS Siddhartha Behura and 1984 batch Indian Economic Service officer RK Chandolia are behind bars, former Central Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha has now alleged that several telecom officials tried to delay CVC’s probe into 2G scam.

Sinha who had served as the head of India’s anti-corruption watchdog for four years till September, 2010, said there was a delay on the part of some telecoms officials in replying to CVC’s queries regarding 2G spectrum allocation, according to media reports. He further said that his Commission advised against the allocation of spectrums on first-cum-first basis.

Meanwhile, many more officials who had served in the department of telecoms from 2003 could feel the heat sometime later as telecoms minister Kapil Sibal is keen on CBI investigating the matter right from the NDA regime. The Justice (retired) Shivraj Patil report, for example, has dragged in a former DoT secretary into the controversy. The report says: “TRAI had also recommended that .. additional players could be introduced through multi stage bidding process, which was also accepted by the Union Cabinet on 31.10.2003. However, in deviation with said requirements, the Secretary DOT, on the contrary, on 17.11.2003, approved formulation of procedure of accepting the applications for grant of UASLs by adopting procedure similar to the procedure adopted for grant of BSL…” (Para 3.2(i)/Page 84)

It remains to be seen whether heads of more bureaucrats who had worked in department of telecoms during the last eight years or so, will be rolled in this continuing 2G saga.

Bihar IAS Pratyaya Amrit invited by US Department of State

And finally, here is a good piece of news for Indian bureaucracy. Pratyaya Amrit, a 1991 batch Bihar cadre IAS, has been invited by the US Department of State to participate in International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). The program will be on urban planning and economic development, to be held in the US from February 7 to 25, 2011. The leadership program is meant for policy makers, urban planners, architects, public transportation specialists, academics and journalists among others.

Action and Appointments

a) Jayant  Singh, an IRTS official presently working in the ministry of railways, has been appointed as deputy director (director level), in the La1 Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie.

b) Dinesh Kumar Yadav, a 1998 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre IPS has been selected for appointment as Assistant Director General (deputy secretary level) in the Unique Identification Authority of India under the Planning Commission, New Delhi.