Anil Kumar Jain, Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, has been appointed as Secretary, Ministry of Coal. He is a 1986 batch IAS officer of MP cadre.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is learnt, called the file of Vice Chief of Air Staff , Air Marshal R K S Bhadauria and after review the Appointments Committee decided to make him the Chief of Air Force Staff.

India’s Defence attaches in various foreign missions have got a bigger role than military diplomacy now as they are being asked to boost India’s defence equipment sales in various countries.

Samuel Joseph Jebaraj has assumed charge as Deputy Managing Director in IDBI Bank.  He joined the Exim Bank in 1998 and at present heads the Loan Administration and Human Resources Management Groups of the Bank. Prior to this assignment, he has headed the Corporate Banking, SME, Treasury, Accounts and Information Technology Groups at the Head Office of the Bank .He has also served in the Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Milan and London Offices of the Bank in various capacities. He has over 25 years of professional experience in international trade and investment finance, project finance, structured lending, liability side management, including Treasury and raising of resources.

Sikkim Chief Secretary Alok Srivastava is retiring by this month end. He is 1984 batch IAS officer of Sikkim cadre.

The request of Rezi Dung Dung, 1987 batch IPS officer of Jharkhand cadre, who has sought Voluntary Retirement with effect from October 16, has been accepted.

Himachal Pradesh cadre 1984 batch IPS officer Someshwar Goyal is now unlikely to go on deputation to the Government of India.

Naunihal Singh Aulakh is new IG, Punjab Zone. He is 1997 batch IPS officer of Punjab cadre.

The Government of Tamil Nadu has relieved M Balaji of cadre responsibility paving the way for joining central deputation as Executive Director, Tea Board, Coonoor. He is a 2005 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.

Retired IPS officer, T V Sashidhar Reddy has been appointed Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in Intelligence Department on consolidated remuneration for a period of two years in Andhra Pradesh.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh has released Ms Pratibha Rani to join Bihar Government on inter cadre transfer. She is a 2018 batch IAS officer of AP cadre.

As many as nine officers of Madhya Pradesh State Forest Service have been awarded Indian Forest Service (IFS). The officers include: Devendra Kumar Paliwal, Rajeev Kumar Mishra, Mahendra Singh Sisodia, Lakhan Lal Uikey, Anil Kumar Singh, Brijendra Jah, Shiv Singh Udday, Preetam Pal Titare and Atul Kumar Mishra.

Manbir Singh, Dy Commissioner (ad-hoc), has been reverted to his previous post of Asstt Commissioner, Custom & Central Excise. According to official information , he was inadvertently promoted to DC on December 31, 2018.

A total of 12 IPS officers in Delhi Police have been assigned new postings. Accordingly, Mahender Nath Tiwari has been posted as Additional Commissioner of Police (CP), Armed Police, C K Mein has been posted as Additional CP, PM Security, Sharat Kumar Sinha has been posted as  DCP/PCR, Vikram Harimohan has been posted as Additional DCP-II, South-West, D K S Singh has been posted as DCP/ Prov. And Logistics, Rakesh Pawaria has been posted as Additional DCP-I, East, A K Lall has been posted as DCP, General Administration, Ms Anita Roy has been posted as DCP, Traffic, Hareesh H P has been posted as DCP, III Battalion, AP, Ms Anjitha Chepyala has been posted as Additional DCP/ Traffic (Current Duty Charge), Sukant Shailja Ballabh has been posted as  Additional DCP-II/North-East (Current duty charge) and Pawan Kumar has been posted as Additional DCP, Special Cell (Current Duty Charge).

The Supreme Court Collegium has once again recommended that Justice A.A. Kureshi be appointed as Chief Justice of the Tripura  High Court.

Justice Dharam Chand Chaudhary, senior-most Judge of Himachal Pradesh High Court has been appointed as Acting Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court with effect from the date Justice V Ramasubramanian relinquishes the charge as Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court consequent upon his appointment as Judge of Supreme Court of India.

Justice Chandra Villa Koyanalipilla Abdul Rehim senior-most Judge of Kerala High Court has been appointed Acting Chief Justice of Kerala High Court with effect from the date Justice Hrishikesh Roy relinquishes charge as Chief Justice of Kerala High Court consequent upon his appointment as Judge of Supreme Court of India.

Justice Mohammad Rafiq, senior-most Judge of Rajasthan High Court has been appointed as Acting Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court with effect from the date Justice Shripathi Ravindra Bhat relinquishes the charge as Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court consequent upon his appointment as Judge of Supreme Court of India.

Justice Rajeev Sharma, senior-most Judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court has been appointed as Acting Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court with effect from the date Justice Krishna Murari relinquishes the charge as Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court consequent upon his appointment as a Judge of Supreme Court of India.

Rahul Chaturvedi and Irshad Ali have been appointed as Additional Judges of Allahabad High Court for a period of six months.

Justice Neeraj Tiwari, Additional Judge of Allahabad High Court has been appointed as Permanent Judge of Allahabad High Court.

Justice Vineet Kothari, senior-most Judge of Madras High Court has been appointed as Acting Chief Justice of Madras High Court.

K G Shantaram has been appointed as Secretary, Karnataka Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board in Karnataka. He is a 2010 batch IAS officer of Karnataka cadre.

Aribam Radhabinod Sharma has been posted as Deputy Secretary, Rural Development and Water Conservation Department, Mumbai in Maharashtra. He is a 2012 batch IAS officer.

Bishnupada Sarang, Postmaster General, Rajasthan Circle, has been assigned an additional charge of CPMG, Rajasthan circle.

Finolex Cables Limited has appointed Devender Kumar Vasal as Non-executive, Independent Director of the company.

Gujarat Pipavav Port Limited has appointed Timothy Smith as Director of the company .

Emami Realty Limited has re-appointed Mrs Karabi Sengupta as the Independent Director of the company.

InterGlobe Aviation Limited has appointed Ms Pallavi Shardul Shroff as Non- Executive Independent Director of the company.

Mrs Milli Mehta has quit as Company Secretary of Alankit Limited w.e.f. September 28, 2019.

“Development, Re-development of Parl house, Central Sectt and Central Vista”

Let me come straight to the point. There was some kind of  ‘Ilhaam’ to convey PM’s twin vision of having office buildings, more than 50 years old in Delhi to be razed or revamped and search for a global architecture to redevelop and restructure the central vista, central secretariat and the Parliament house.

Public is not naïve. No wonders, it has already started accusing the CEO of foisting grandiose plans so as to leave a lasting mark on the gullible masses. Dates of completions of projects are fixed even  examining the implications . Decisions are taken unilaterally with scant or no regard for stakeholders. Lack of consultative mechanism, makes it  almost dictatorial. Appalling. Results are obvious. Utter confusion prevails in Min / Housing &Urban Affairs; Officers and engineers are either half-informed or uninformed. No sharing of information, no brain-storming sessions before finalising the multiple projects.

A deeper analysis would throw up several ambiguities. Sample some of these.

The govt reveals its ambitious plan of revamping or building a new Parliament House by 2022 (synchronizing with  75th Independence Day) , razing down Shastri Bhawan, Udyog Bhawan, Krishi Bhawan and build a common secretariat to locate about 70,000 central government employees who now currently work across 30 buildings. The ambitious projects are to be completed by March 2024.A rather tall order for CPWD with its laidback work culture. Favourite realtors could join the fray on the basis of turn-key projects.

North and South Blocks are proposed to be retained as museums with erection of new secretariat buildings. So, one can assume, there is nothing structurally wrong with the Lutynes landmarks. The plan includes upgrading public facilities, parking and greenery in central vista to make it a “world-class tourist hub” by November, 2020.

According to experts, North and South Blocks may need some retrofitting as they are not earthquake proof. Interference with Central Vista by demolishing Shastri/ Krishi/ Udyog Bhawans etc and replacing these with multi-storeyed glass structure without any consultation with the public, groups of architects or urban planners – would be unpardonable. Why raze down buildings for not being earthquake -proof ?

Domain experts caution that any plan of such large scale and magnitude should not be executed in a hurry. This is a serious flaw in the scheme.A truncated timeframe without detailed examination of ambitious projects leaving many things vague ,would lead to selection of incompetent ,inefficient builders who could  leave the jobs in the middle causing more delay and corruption.

The ministry invited bids both from Indian and international architecture firms to provide consultancy services for the projects. The bidders have been asked to visit the site and examine the parameters and scope of the work in detail, and  carry out detailed analysis before submitting the bids. It is left to the bidders to choose what they plan to revamp or demolish as per their plan. In other words, Govt is not clear about its flagship projects. Locating vacant space for new Parliament building, would be a tedious job .It must be ensured that Fee structure is decided by the Council of Architecture to prevent malpractices. Often foreign companies initially ask for very low fees upfront and then do a shabby job or even abandon the project midway. So adherence to Council norms would ensure that projects are executed by the best local hands.

Would there be any monitoring mechanism to ensure adherence to Lutyens bungalows and Central Vista guidelines ? This is considered necessary to preserve the original  character of the capital city. Central Vista needs special attention. It has hundreds of trees, some as old as 100 years. The trees need replacement. The bid document does not spell out importance of Central Vista.

My hunch is that the Government would ultimately press for replacing  present Bhawans by multi-storied office buildings. This will cause massive inconvenience to the public. Due to high population density in Lutyens Delhi, decentralisation of  central government offices is need of the hour as per GOI’s stated policy. Aspects like architecture , heritage, transportation and time-bound nature of projects would have to be dovetailed.   One wonders whether Delhi Urban Art Commission will be kept in the loop?

The bidders are expected to have the experience of completing one single master plan for urban or historical area redevelopment project of size not less than 500 acres in India along with a single building project of value not less than Rs 250 crore. A comprehensive urban design, landscape and conservation strategy, should have been prepared first. 

Both chairman (RS) and Speaker ( LS) have asked the government to build a modern Parliament house. Is the whole exercise being undertaken to pamper the political class by providing separate chamber for each MP? At least, so it seems. Lok Sabha secretariat is still collecting feedback from stakeholders . Locating a new site to build a new Parliament may not be easy. Security concerns have to be addressed.

Govt’s  perpetually wonky priorities are disturbing. The public was assured of Good governance, Efficiency, Transparency, Accountability and above all Equity. Removal of encroachment on public land still remains elusive.

The amount earmarked for  make-over of  Lutyens Delhi, could be put to better use for removal of unauthorised occupation on public land.

Instead of signing the deal for  “bullet train” technology  on Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector, we could have carried out full electrification of trunk lines or to double-track some important rail routes that are still single line and require complicated scheduling schemes which get routinely disrupted resulting in most trains running late

A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

Documents submitted by the appellant

The appellant sought a certified copy of all documents submitted by him at the time of his appointment in the Hindi Teaching Scheme (HTS), Chennai Office. The CIC held that the appellant is not entitled to the information as a matter of right under the RTI Act and the information sought cannot be provided to him.

Comments

In the case of High Court, Madras v. CIC, WP No. 26781/2013, the Madras High Court held that the copies of complaints and appeals submitted by an appellant are not the information available within the knowledge of the public authority. Admittedly, they are the documents of the appellant and therefore, if the appellant does not have copies of the same, he has to blame himself and he cannot seek those details as a matter of right. Further, those documents cannot be brought under the definition "information" as defined under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act.

Citation: K N Rajasekar v. CPIO, Department of Official Language in Second Appeal No. CIC/DPOOL/A/2018/114542 dated 28.08.2019

Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is an expert on RTI matters and has co-authored the books RIGHT TO INFORMATION - LAW AND PRACTICE and PIO’s guide to RTI. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link: http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/

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