Hard at work

The undercurrents were always there. But the row between the IFS and the IFS B hasn’t been played out like this for long time now.

IFS B protest over appointment of n korea ambassador
The undercurrents were always there. But the row between the IFS and the IFS B hasn’t been played out like this for long time now. The IFS B ensured that their protest against the appointment of Ajay K Sharma as Indian ambassador to North Korea has come out in the open. Sharma belongs to the stenographer cadre of the service that rarely makes to the top-most levels in the ministry. The IFS B argues that Sharma’s appointment has scuttled the chance of one of their men getting the posting. They also argue that the practice of inducting stenographer grade officials into IFS, however, was stopped more than three years ago. What seemed to have worked in favour of Sharma was that he was working as a counsellor in his previous posting, which was equivalent of a director, and which means he can be posted as an ambassador. However, the IFS B allege that key officials in the MEA belonging to IFS did some manoeuvring to get Sharma posted.

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CIC threatens to name ministries over submission of annual status
The Central Information Commission has threatened to name in a report to Parliament the ministries which fail to submit their annual returns on the status of the Right To Information Act by end of June. The CIC has been asking the public information officers of the ministries to upload the returns on its website but several ministries have failed to do so. As a result, the CIC was pulled up by a parliamentary committee for failing to submit its annual report on time. Not willing to be reprimanded again, the CIC has decided to list the names of the ministries which fail to upload the returns as defaulters in its parliamentary report.