He will not take no for an answer. Shortly after he was told that he would not be allowed to appoint a pointsman to strengthen India’s oil security through diplomacy, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has come up with a novel solution.Since extra expenditure stands in the way of the new post, he has proposed an interesting barter. He wants the Finance Ministry to let him appoint Talmiz Ahmad as the extra Additional Secretary in his ministry in return for the money he will save by scrapping the Anti-Adulteration Cell.The suggestion has already received an initial green signal.Aiyar is determined to push this project through. He firmly believes that a senior person needs to look at not just the commercial aspects of oil deals, but even the geopolitical position of India’s oil trading partners. To accommodate this expansion, he had earlier suggested abolishing two advisor-level posts as a trade-off. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram rejected that offer, saying that the two posts that Aiyar was giving up had already been recommended for abolition by the Expenditure Reforms Commission. So there would be no real saving.This has prompted Aiyar to come up with the latest offer.The creation of the Additional Secretary’s post will involve an additional expenditure of Rs 6 lakh per annum towards pay and allowances. Aiyar plans to meet this from the Rs 20 lakh that the ministry is saving every year from winding up the Anti-Adulteration Cell on July 31, 2004 after the CBI had caught one of its officers taking bribe.The services of Director General AAC and the four Regional Directors have now been placed at the disposal of the Establishment Officer, Department of Personnel and Training.Aiyar has communicated his plan to the Finance Ministry and DoPT, both of which have concurred with the post’s creation. However, the proposal will now go to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet for approval, as advised by Chidambaram.Once in, Ahmad would have to coordinate the overseas activities of State-run oil firms. Apart from assessing how sound a project is, economically, he will also have to evaluate the geopolitics surrounding the foreign partner.
