Hard at work

One of the most trusted aides of rural development minister Jairam Ramesh will be back in action by January. R Vineel Krishna — who shot to fame after he was abducted by Maoists in Malkangiri — is due to return in January after his study leave ended at London on a Chevening Scholarship.

PS to hunt for a job again
One of the most trusted aides of rural development minister Jairam Ramesh will be back in action by January. R Vineel Krishna — who shot to fame after he was abducted by Maoists in Malkangiri — is due to return in January after his study leave ended at London on a Chevening Scholarship.

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This means that Neelam Meena, a West Bengal cadre IAS officer, will have to look for a new posting. Meena was earlier private secretary to junior rural development minister from the Trinamool Congress — Sisir Kumar Adhikari — who quit from the council of ministers earlier this year. She had then opted for a short stint with Ramesh in Krishna's absence.

Not disabled-friendly: A candid confession
After being in denial mode for years, the government's human resources manager — the department of personnel & training — has finally acknowledged that many departments weren't being entirely fair to the disabled.

In an office memo issued this week, DoPT conceded that many departments were "not complying" with instructions to carry forward unfilled reserved vacancies and allowing interchange among the three categories of disability.

Cash transfer roll-out: Urgency looms large
There is a sense of urgency among senior Central government bureaucracy on direct cash transfer, thanks to principal secretary to Prime Minister Pulak Chatterjee.

The Uttar Pradesh-cadre IAS officer has given a daily target to secretaries of different ministries to achieve to ensure that cash transfer rolls out from January 1 next year.

Chatterjee is said to be taking a briefing meeting on direct cash transfer almost every day from secretary Planning Sindhushree Khullar, who is coordinating the work between ministries.

"Such urgency has been seen after a lot of time," a senior bureaucrat commented but was not sure whether Chatterjee's efforts would bear the desired result.

Officials vow not to deal with TMC camp
After Pawan Bansal became railway minister, he not only brought his own set of officials but even changed all middle and lower rank staff in his office who were associated with his predecessor, Trinamool's Mukul Roy. Some of them, however, managed postings with MOS Adhir Chowdhury. Despite being in Trinamool's rival camp, Adhir took these staff but after securing assurances that they will not interact with Trinamool campers.