Dilli Ka Babu: Housing blues

An IAS couple in Mumbai are on the verge of losing their government allotted house in Malabar Hill to the city’s mayor, who reportedly has been searching for accommodation for the past 10 months. The house occupied by the senior babus apparently belongs to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and has been designated as the official mayoral residence.

Sources say that the state government has requested the BMC that Pravin and Pallavi Darade be allowed to live there as long as they are posted in Mumbai. The real issue, sources say, is the ongoing tussle between the Maharashtra government and the BMC over “official” residences in a city where sarkari accommodation is limited and therefore almost always hotly contested over.

Govt’s Sebi dilemma

The government is in a bind over appointing whole-time members with capital markets regulator Sebi. To maintain the regulator’s “autonomy and independence” it mandates IAS officers to resign from service if they have to take up the job of whole-time member with Sebi. Now Sanjeev Kaushik, a 1992-batch Kerala cadre IAS officer, who was asked by the Centre to resign to take up the Sebi job, has reportedly declined the offer. The IAS officer, currently on deputation with the finance ministry, has instead chosen to return to Kerala to take up the post of principal secretary. Sources say that Mr Kaushik had requested the Centre that he be allowed to go to Sebi on deputation, but this was declined.

Many observers feel that the rule not allowing IAS officers to go on deputation to Sebi may make it difficult for the government to find younger and specialised talent from the pool of officers. No IAS officer would like to take up a three-year job when he has more than 10 years or more of service left with the government.
With Mr Kaushik declining the job, Sebi now has to hunt for two WTMs as the regulator recently created one more post for a WTM.

Cyber babus

A new division called cyber and information security (CIS) was created last November under the ministry of home affairs under which Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and the Cyber Police Force are being set up. The CIS division will have four wings — security clearance, cyber-crime prevention, cyber security and information security wings each — headed by an undersecretary-level officer. Sources say that home minister Rajnath Singh and home secretary Rajiv Gauba reviewed the progress of the functioning of the new division recently. Apparently, it was proposed to appoint the chief information security officer (CISO) and deputy CISO under the MHA.

The government has created the new division after realising the need to keep a tab on crimes dominating the Internet space. The government wants the division to create an effective mechanism to strictly monitor cyber space and block website flouting India’s laws, especially child porn. An online portal for preparing, follow up and issue of advisory on financial fraud related matters is also in the offing. However, it is still not clear how many babus will work in the division and who will head it. Watch this space for updates.

Tailpiece

A spook by any other name is a… writer! Though there are quite many civil servants, present and past, who have displayed writing skills beyond jottings on official files, it is not often that one stumbles upon a former top spook who has found a way to unburden his mind without endangering national security! Having hung up the old cloak and dagger a few years ago, he now authors a blog, which has a refreshing whiff of whimsy about it. Some poetry (in Hindi), tongue-in-cheek piece on the difficulty of linking his Aadhaar to his bank account, an ode to P.G. Wodehouse, and several short reveries about an eventful life. You can read more at kcverma.in. More power to your pen, sir!