SANJAY K. DIXIT
DECEMBER 12, 2021
Batch-2014 IAS Officer Amrit Topano has tendered resignation, but the problem is that it hasn't been accepted yet. A message to Chief Secretary, ACS to Home and GAD Secretary did have Resignation written on atop, but there is no mention of it below. The Whatsapp message of IAS Topano has confused the officers at Mantralaya…what to do with the young IAS? Hence, GAD has asked Topano send a letter in hard paper, but Topano hasn't replied until now. Even his batch-mates couldn't tell what's the problem with Topano, only that he has returned to Jharkhand is known.
MEMORY OF SHAILESH
The resignation by Amrit Topano has freshened up the memory of the resignation of Shailesh Pathak. A powerful officer in Ajit Jogi Government, Shailesh Pathak had moved on to the private sector after resigning from IAS in 2005. But he couldn't adjust there and changed his mind. Since he had good contacts in Delhi, so he settled there, but the only issue was getting approval from the government. DOPT assured Shailesh that there is no difficulty in his reinstatement once he gets approval from State Government. Unfortunately, CM Secretariat had directly refused him. CM Secretariat's one senior and influential IAS had told CM Raman Singh that it will set the wrong precedent. Officers will resign from IAS to go into the private sector and return after a short tour there. So, in this way, this episode of Pathak's return ended.
MARUTI OF CM
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was giving a speech at the inauguration function of the Institute of Driving & Research in Nava Raipur. He said he had a motorcycle. He went to buy a motorcycle after becoming MLA in 1993. Bike dealer suggested, "Bhaiya, since you become MLA, the motorcycle wouldn't suit you, now you deserve a car." The bike dealer also had a car dealership, so he got Baghel to buy a Maruti 800. Maruti was a reliable partner of Baghel for a long time. The Japanese MD and COO of Maruti present at the function looked quite elated with admiration.
SECOND IPS
Kawardha SP Mohit Garg was finally removed after the communal violence in the district. He was replaced by Lal Ummed Singh, who is making a return to the district. He had been Kawardha SP for two and a half years in the past. This will be his second inning in Kawardha. In the IPS cadre, only Ratanlal Dangi got the chance of being SP in a district twice. He was SP of Korba twice. In IAS Cadre, only Subodh Singh had occupied the post of Bilaspur Collector twice. He was a Bilaspur Collector before coming to Raipur and then returning back to the same place.
POOR SECRETARY
If everything goes well, IAS officers will get a promotion in the first week of January. The IAS officers of Batch-2006 will become Secretary and Batch-1997 will be elevated to Principal Secretary rank. There are three IAS officers of Batch-1997 namely Subodh Singh, M Geeta and Niharika Barik. Subodh is on Central Deputation. Niharika is on a one-and-a-half-year hiatus and Geeta is almost on deputation. Almost means Niharika is in Chhattisgarh Bhawan Delhi and it's also a fact that her deputation order from the Government of India can arrive any day. In the Batch-2006, there are Ankit Anand, Shruti Singh, Dayanand, CR Prasanna, Alex Paul Menon, Bhuvnesh Yadav and Bharatidasan. All of them will become Secretary. However, the Batch-2005 IAS officers had to struggle a lot to become Secretary, but it appears to be smooth sailing for this batch. The Government will get seven Secretaries at once. There are already 26 Secretaries plus seven more, which means there soon will be 33 Secretaries. No one can guess what departments will these Secretaries get, given their large numbers.
NEW COLLECTOR, SP
Notifications of three new districts have been issued, but no OSD has been posted. Even if the new Districts are to be inaugurated around January 26, the time has come to appoint OSD. Obviously, IAS and IPS officers are waiting with bated breath to become Collectors and SPs in the new districts.
PUMPKIN AND MADAM
CM Bhupesh Baghel usually doesn't even raise eyebrows in meetings, unless it's a really bad day for any officer. Normally, the meetings happen in a jovial atmosphere. A farmer had brought Pumpkin for VVIPs in a meeting for payment related to Godhan Nyay Yojana this week in CM House. By the time it was the turn of officers after distribution to CM and Ministers, the farmer ran out of Pumpkins. As the meeting concluded, two senior IAS officers jokingly asked farmers to get pumpkins as it will please their madams. It filled the atmosphere with laughter.
SAFFRON DRESS OF OFFICERS
A marathon race was held in the Capital city last week. Many big wigs including an Ex-Chief Secretary had turned up to partake in the race. The contestants got to wear strikingly Saffron-colour T-shirts before the start of the race. Now the officers were in a catch-22 situation, can't remove the t-shirt, can't remove them either. Since there were media persons at the event, officers couldn't just take t-shirts off. Hence, many officers took off the t-shirts mid-race while some changed their shirts immediately after the finish line. Fear was lest someone sees them.
THREE UMESH
There were two Umesh in the Department of Public Relation earlier. Both were Umesh Mishra. One was called Umesh of Delhi whereas the other was Umesh of Samvad to tell them apart. Umesh of Delhi was posted in Delhi for a long time, hence the identification. Now, one more Umesh has entered the DPR, which means the third Umesh. Now, there is the same old problem of what to call him. He has settled the problem, asking him to address it by his full name Umesh Patel.
POLICING OF RAIPUR
Tensions flared up in the Tikrapara area on the night of December 6. To control the situation from deteriorating, SSP Prashant Agrawal had taken up control at Tikrapara Police Station from five in the morning. It means that if there was a senior and serious officer at the police station, there wouldn't be a need for SSP. It has been over 21 years since the formation of the state, but the policing in the Capital city remained neglected. One can't just rely on getting SSP to do the labour to control a city like Raipur with over 12 lakh population. When Bhopal and Indore have got the Police Commissioner system, Raipur SP doesn't even have a City SP. Although, late Vinod Choubey was certainly City SP during the tenure of Ashok Juneja as SSP. But the system ended with Juneja's transfer. Now it has become necessary that to control a city like Raipur, SSP must be strengthened. At least the district should be given two SPs, one for urban and one for rural areas. Both should be IPS. Thereafter, appoint four Additional SPs by dividing the city into four zones. Bhopal with the 18-lakh population has an ADG Rank equivalent Police Commissioner along with four Additional Commissioner of DIG rank, 12 Deputy Commissioners of SP Rank and 30 ASP of Additional SP level while for the security of Raipur with 12-lakh population's security got only one SSP and two Additional SPs? The government needs to consider fixing the policing set-up of the Capital city.
Two questions to you at last
1. Will Rajesh Mishra, who is returning from deputation, get an important posting?
2. Is it true that NRDA has floated a tender for a new railway station to jack up land rates of bureaucrats in front of their sector?
