RS Gujral pipes R Gopalan, Sumit Bose; becomes new finance secretary

Gujral (R) was reportedly sidelined by CP Joshi (L)

NINETEEN days after Sunil Mitra retired as finance secretary, the North Block finally found its new man at the helms --- 1976 batch Haryana cadre IAS, RS Gujral. Till recently, he was not even in the reckoning to clinch the coveted North Block post. But with his appointment as the new finance secretary, Gujral will now be the boss of his two outstanding batch-mates, DEA secretary R Gopalan and expenditure secretary Sumit Bose, both come under finance ministry. Gujral will continue to handle the revenue department which oversees the work of CBDT and CBEC.

A Humphery fellow from US, Gujral was the Director General of Foreign Trade and had closely worked with Kamal Nath when the latter was the minister of commerce and industry during the last UPA government. When Nath became the minister for road transport and highways, he brought Gujral to his ministry. But Gujral did not get along with new road transport and highways minister CP Joshi over the ministry’s dealings with Planning Commission.

Only three weeks ago, he moved into the finance ministry as revenue secretary. But Gujral’s seniority over his batch-mates Gopalan and Bose helped him getting the finance secretary’s post. Sumit Bose still has a chance to be finance secretary three years from now, as he will retire only in March, 2014, but Gopalan will retire in April, 2012. Gujral will have a fairly long period as finance secretary as he will retire in November 2013.

MHA clarifies on 1981 batch IPS JV Ramudu

After JV Ramudu, a 1981 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IPS, was made a member of Special Investigation Team (SIT), it was now found that Ramudu would not be a part of the panel because of a surgery that he had sometime ago. The surgery requires constant medical check-ups. The SIT was constituted by Gujarat High Court to investigate the alleged fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan and others.

Here is the clarification of the ministry of home affairs: “The medical condition of Shri J.V. Ramudu was brought to the notice of the Ministry of Home Affairs only after his name had been approved by the High Court and Home Ministry had to approach the Hon’ble High Court to nominate another officer from a fresh panel of three names, which has since been accepted by the High Court. Neither the State Government of Andhra Pradesh nor the officer himself had brought to the notice of MHA the inability of the officer to be a part of SIT, although his name had been indicated in the High Court’s order in May, 2011”.