Exiting 'netas' push for their men, 'babus' say no

Post-election, the bureaucracy and politicians are engaged in a face-off over last-minute appointments and clearance of files.

While ministers are trying their best to push favourites in various commissions, the rigid bureaucracy has put its foot down and is refusing to oblige.

A tussle is on between women and child development (WCD) minister Renuka Chowdhury and WCD secretary Anil Kumar over the appoint four members to the national commission for the protection of child rights (NCPCR).

Kumar has reportedly refused to oblige the minister, saying “the model code of conduct exists till the new government is formed”.

Set up in March 2007, NCPCR, headed by social activist Shanta Sinha, has so far functioned with only three members. Despite frequent controversies relating to children and increased workload, the minister never really bothered to appoint more members to strengthen the commission.

But with her term coming to an end, she has now fast-tracked these appointments.
Interestingly, among the new members Chowdhury is keen to appoint is only one social activist (Seema Sadiq), while another is a financial consultant from Andhra Pradesh (Sreedhar Murthy) and two lawyers (Charu Ali Khanna and Anil Siwach).

It is learnt that Chouwdhury was keen to appoint the four before the elections itself, but the matter got stuck at the election commission. After the elections, the WCD secretary refused to sign on the dotted line, saying the code of conduct remained in place until the new government comes in power. To be on the safer side, the secretary has decided to go on leave and would return only when the new government is formed.

A similar effort by human resource development minister Arjun Singh has been challenged in the Delhi high court. Singh hurriedly appointed 15 vice-chancellors to yet-to-be-opened universities.