Chidambaram is learnt to have ordered a review of all the officials in his ministry, which is the highest authority for ensuring security within the country.
Home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram has sent bureaucratic circles in the capital into a tizzy with reports that he plans to cut the flab in his ministry and overhaul its functioning.
Chidambaram is learnt to have ordered a review of all the officials in his ministry, which is the highest authority for ensuring security within the country and maintaining law and order. Also, those officials who have completed five years in the ministry are being identified, to be shipped out of North Block.
The idea of the exercise is to ensure optimal use of resources and get rid of the deadwood. A key component of the drive is to bring about transparency in the functioning of the ministry. A start has been made with respect to appointments and postings.
Clearly signalling that he means business, Chidambaram, after making sure that the ministers of state he got were the pick of the lot, has embarked on a mission to select his private secretary.
Immediately after assuming charge, Chidambaram is believed to have made a personal request to prime minister Manmohan Singh to assign two “good and efficient” ministers of state to North Block. Ajay Maken and Mullappally Ramachandran are both men of proven track records. Maken is credited with drawing up Delhi’s Master Plan 2021 to overcome the city’s problem of rampant unauthorised construction and ensure planned growth.
Ramachandran was a minister of state for two years from 1991 in the PV Narasimha Rao government and is seen to be a man of integrity.
Taking the process further, Chidambaram has surprised North Block by starting a transparent process of selecting his own secretary. The minister’s office recently issued a circular seeking applications from interested candidates within the ministry.
Chidambaram reportedly evinced personal interest in shortlisting the applicants and followed it up by interviewing the four on the short list. The result is awaited.
The post of private secretary became vacant after Rajiv Mittal, an IAS officer and appointee of former home minister Shivraj Patil, moved out of the ministry.
Chidambaram had ordered restructuring of the ministry before the Lok Sabha election.
The revamp envisages bifurcation of the internal security and police divisions and merger of the naxal management and anti-naxal operations divisions to prevent multiplicity of authorities. Similarly, VIP security has been transferred from the police modernisation division to the more relevant internal security division II.
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