Bihar CM appoints rural development secy

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar clearly knows how to use bureaucratic expertise in the right way. After placing IAS officer Amrit Lal Meena briefly as labour secretary, Kumar made him secretary for rural development

Bihar CM appoints rural development secy
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar clearly knows how to use bureaucratic expertise in the right way. After placing IAS officer Amrit Lal Meena briefly as labour secretary, Kumar made him secretary for rural development. Meena was the private secretary of Union rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and has thorough knowledge about the requirements of the sector.

HT Image

Recently, when he came to Delhi to meet his former boss, Meena told Singh that he is diligently implementing his ideas for developing rural Bihar.

RS TV CEO moved to Doordarshan
With UPA managers keen to revamp Doordarshan news, Rajya Sabha TV CEO Gurdeep Singh Sappal may shift to Mandi House, the Doordarshan headquarters. Sappal is credited with establishing RS TV and earlier worked as the OSD to Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari. As the government is keen to see its official channel compete with private news channels, Sappal is likely to be given a major responsibility for news bulletins in DD.

Race for director
general of forests
The race for the post of director general of forests is getting intense. Rajesh Gopal, member secretary of National Tiger Conservation Authority is said to be front-runner for the post while the acting director general AK Shrivastava is also in the fray. However, sources said that the government was looking at bringing a person from outside the ministry to head the forest wing to end turf war in the forest bureaucracy. The post had fallen vacant more than a month ago when the incumbent PK Dalip Kumar retired.

MSME secy appointed petroleum secy
Vivek Rae, presently secretary, ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) has been appointed as secretary, ministry of petroleum and natural gas. A 1978 batch IAS officer of Uttarakhand cadre, Rae would succeed Girish Chandra Chaturvedi on his retirement on January 31. He will join the ministry on Feb 1.

MHA website blanks Verma panel report
So did the decision to black out the Justice JS Verma panel report have anything to do with the former chief justice's move to reprimand home ministry leadership for its handling of the gang rape protests? It does seem so. The home ministry was all set to upload the panel's report and had even put up a link on its official website around the time Verma started addressing his press conference. The move was deferred, however, when he did not have any kind words for the home secretary or others at the ministry. And the next day as Verma's rebuke made it to the headlines, the home ministry quietly removed the link too.