With Punjab elections over, I&B babus can expect action, once Mantri Ambika Soni gets moving. Infighting at the top at Prasar Bharati has begun to resemble those deathless soap operas we see on television, and she will expect a clearing up now. Those who expected the dust to settle after the B.S. Lalli episode were clearly mistaken. Now it is A.K. Jain, a 1974-batch IAS officer of the Nagaland cadre who finds himself in all sorts of trouble. Jain is Member (Finance), and may find himself repatriated to his parent cadre for ‘major slip-ups’ and ‘messily handled’ accounts under his administration.

Curiously, it was Jain who was responsible for bringing to light certain corruption charges against Lalli. But eversince Lalli retired last month, Jain has found the spotlight turned on him. Watch this space for updates – and hopefully some real action!

Endless wait

The UPA government’s strange inability to fill crucial senior positions in the bureaucracy has created a critical vacuum in some key departments. Take the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), for instance. The civil aviation regulator has been headless since November last year when the present incumbent E.K. Bharat Bhushan’s term expired (he’s serving on extension till a replacement is found).

Now the government is planning to relax the recruitment rules. Apparently civil aviation babus are mulling reducing the required aviation-related experience criteria from 12 to 5 years. Interestingly, former civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi wanted to reduce this further to three years. The final call now rests with his successor Ajit Singh, who has had UP elections occupying his time and mind. On it also hangs the fate of Bharat Bhushan, who his babus gather, would like his temporary posting made permanent, and that of A.K. Sharan, at present the senior-most joint director general.

Food for thought

There are no free lunches, literally, in Union Minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh’s domain. The minister who strives to strike a different note has launched a vigorous austerity drive in his ministry and its associated departments. In the minister’s crosshair now is the Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), which operates out of tony India Habitat Centre and has regional offices across the country. Sources say that CAPART is at the top of Ramesh’s restructuring efforts.

Officials working in CAPART were routinely issued lunch coupons which they used in IHC’s upscale restaurants. Ramesh has stopped this practice claiming it a frivolous waste of money. No one would disagree, except perhaps the officials who are experiencing hunger pangs. But perhaps they ought to worry about Ramesh’s proposed plan to shut down 9 regional centres of CAPART. That’s a sure way to lose one’s appetite and a lot of rather somnolent babus.