Raj cadre IAS lagging in central promotions?

Rajendra Chhabra

Jaipur: The 1993 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer Alok, who is currently on deputation, has been given a new assignment. He has been appointed as Additional Secretary in Disaster Management Authority under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Till now, he had been serving as Member (Administration) in the National Highways Authority. Alok has been given this role as his three year stint in Highways Authority has ended.

Alok went on Central deputation in January 2020 and this happened after the State Government gave a NOC after much tussle owing to the dearth of senior IAS officials in the State. Prior to going to Delhi, Alok served as Roadways MD and during this, he took several decisions regarding purchase of new buses. Alok had served in the Centre from 2010 to 2014 as well. He still has four years to his retirement and in that time frame, he will be promoted to Secretary level and thus, his chances of returning to Rajasthan are negligible.

As of now, in the Centre, there are 5 Raj cadre IAS officers as Secretary, 6 as Additional Secretary and 4 as Joint Secretary. The 1993 batch IAS Sandeep Verma is eagerly awaiting a call from Centre for the post of Additional Secretary. He has worked in the Centre earlier also from September 2010 to October 2013. In fact, officials junior to him have now started becoming Additional Secretary. Similarly, the 1995 batch IAS officer Praveen Gupta is also awaiting his promotion to Joint Secretary rank, whereas, the 2003 batch IAS have become Joint Secretary. The 1994 batch IAS Naresh Pal Gangwar has also fallen behind in the race.

First India Bureau

Bhilwara: Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, while addressing a press conference at Circuit House on Friday, said that the preparations for the arrival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Malaseri have been completed. He said that the PM would address a public meeting and it was not a politi- cal programme.

On the question of not inviting Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to the programme, Meghwal said that it is a religious programme and if the Chief Minister wanted to come, he was welcome.

Modi will visit Malaseri in Asind today to attend the 1, 111th birth anniversary celebrations of Lord Devnarayan.

He will reach Dabok airport at 10.30 am. From there he will leave for Malaseri by helicopter at 10.35 am and reach at 11.25. After darshan of Lord Devnarayan and address to a gathering. He will go back to New Delhi via Udaipur. An estimated 2.5 lakh people will attend the meeting of the Prime Minister. Adequate seating and parking arrangements are being made for this. The parking area will be 1-3 kilometres away. Buses from remote villages will be made to stand about three kilometres away. Villagers will reach the meeting place on foot.

The routes considered accessible by the administration include Asind to Malaseri, Kanwalas to Malaseri, Bhilwara to Jetpura to Malaseri, Shambhugarh - Hatana, Shambhugarh-Barsani, Rayala-Eras-Malaseri and Rupaheli via Bera to reach Malaseri. Asind, Kanwalas and Bankyarani routes will lead to Malaseri.

Randhawa on the 'frontfoot'

First India Bureau

Jaipur: Congress State incharge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa is handling the party’s issues on 'Frontfoot'!

Sources reveal that Randhawa is now engaged in making 'report card' of MLAs and is collecting data of every assembly constituency. Word is that the report of 200 Assembly constituencies will be ready in a month and the next Cabinet reshuffle-expansion can happen on this basis.

Randhawa is engaged in doing something different to bring the government again and wants to clear the picture of Rajasthan Congress before elections.

Along with this, he wants to remove the doubts that have raised in the mind of every party worker.

Randhawa has realised one thing that flagship schemes of the Gehlot government are extremely good, but to win in the next elections, the party will have to do something different. Work will have to be done on 'Social Engineering' for Rajasthan.

Randhawa knows that BJP will use full force in Rajasthan as establishing unity in BJP will not be a difficult task for their High Command.