Health Minister J P Nadda.
There is little left to the imagination during Health Minister J P Nadda’s periodic “Swachhta” inspections at Nirman Bhawan, with officers informed well in advance even for surprise inspections. However, the next one, scheduled for Saturday morning, has not gone down well with ministry staff and officials, who have been asked to report for work on a weekend for this purpose.
Who’s Next
With Friday being the last day of her three-year term as Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Stuti Kacker lined up a spate of report releases and launch of a digital safety app for children, all in her last week in office. Meanwhile, there’s still no word on her replacement, even as the Women and Child Ministry conducted all interviews about a month ago. Amid growing instances of violence against children, and with some of these cases in the Supreme Court, the silence on appointment has a few worried. Kacker herself was appointed after the chair of the apex child right’s body was kept vacant for about a year and half.
Race Begins
The race for the top post in the two largest border security forces has begun, with the directors general of the BSF and ITBP set to complete their tenures. While DG BSF K K Sharma, a 1982-batch IPS officer, finished his stint this month, DG ITBP R K Pachnanda, a 1983-batch IPS officer who is among the few officers to have served in all central forces, is due to retire next month.
Speed Breaker
The Railway Ministry’s proposal to make at least two new Board Members dedicated for Signalling and Stores and a Director General post for Safety has hit a bump. In the inter-ministerial consultation, it has been objected to with the logic that the original proposal of the Cadre Review Committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary had agreed to only encadre the post of Member (Staff) for officers of Indian Railway Personnel Service. Railways is now freshly initiating the matter reiterating its proposal. It is felt at the top levels in the ministry that not getting service-specific Member posts would create problems in the implementation of encadring the Member (Staff) post of the Personnel Service as there has already been representations from other services against the proposed move.