After MEA success, XP div fails to take off in Finance

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh’s plans to duplicate the success of the external publicity (XP) division of the Ministry of External Aff...

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh’s plans to duplicate the success of the external publicity (XP) division of the Ministry of External Affairs in his ministry is not heading anywhere. With newly established media cell head Deepak Sandhu not getting enough freedom to choose the staff she wants to work with.

So much so that Principal Information Officer to the Government of India, Sahib Singh, in a letter dated May 24 to Information and Broadcasting secretary has indicated that if officers are not made available …it will tinker with existing problems.

Singh said creation of the post of Additional Secretary, two director level posts and two under secretary level posts needs to be put in place for the cell to be activated.

Story continues below this ad

Secretaries Finance, Revenue and Expenditure had made it clear that the officials in the media cell would be personal to Sandhu. In other words, once the cell goes, the officials go too.

In fact, the three secretaries in the Finance Ministry have made it clear that the post of director will be retained. Sandhu, since then, it is learnt, has been trying to find the right people for her cell and get them on par with the Indian Information Service (IIS).

In other words, if the officers are not in cadre they risk being let loose if the cell gets dismantled at some later point of time. While all this is being seen as a fight between the IAS and the IIS, everyone is waiting for an outcome.