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Journalism of Courage
Many police officers take pride in well-built bodies. However, slimmer colleagues, unable to match the muscle, often quips that ‘brain, not brawn’ define a true officer. A senior IPS officer, known for taking a dig at officers flexing muscle, allegedly mocked a slightly bulky officer in his cabin during discussions. This flared up the officer, who is learnt to have said that the strength was built with years of effort, and the two entered into a heated argument. The IPS officer had to then order his office staff to drag the officer out of his cabin. The officer is known for solving high profile cases, but after this exchange, he was sent to a not-so-favourable posting.
VACANT POSTS
Even as the Chief Secretary was given a three-month extension, there are several key departments which do not have administrative heads. Among them include Deputy CM Eknath Shinde’s Housing Department, which is handled by Aseem Gupta, who has the responsibility of Urban Development Department as well. Senior bureaucrat Rajagopal Devara was in-charge of Planning, Excise and Co-operation when he retired from the service on August 31. The government is yet to assign full-time administrative heads for these departments. How about filling these vacancies?
DIFFERENT RULES
The cancellation of online written examination for the promotion of non-state civil services officers to the Indian Administrative Service has come as an embarrassment to the General Administration Department headed by the chief minister. Interestingly, the decision to postpone the exam is based on an order from Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal after two private secretaries of present-day ministers approached the MAT, raising objection on reserving marks for the seniority in the services. There are officers who got into IAS using this criterion in the past, but nobody raised a voice in the past. Different times, different rules?
VIRTUAL PRESENCE
A recent trend has come to light where some officials reach a troubled spot, spend a few minutes there, get a video of them walking around and then return to their offices. The video is then circulated on social media platforms (especially where their seniors are present) by their proxies praising the official’s hard work and effectiveness in diffusing the situation.
