Fly on the Wall

Pramod Mahajan the paper tiger

Ever since Pramod Mahajan assumed charge of the Information Technology Ministry in addition to parliamentary affairs, he has been keen to make his ministry paperless. In fact, he was keen to sign an agreement digitally when he visited Singapore. But the absence of the IT Act blocked his dream. Now that the Act has been cleared, Mahajan is working overtime to frame rules and procedures to implement the act before the monsoon session begins on July 24. He also wants to make the functioning of the MIT paperless before August 15 so that the PM can make an announcement to this effect from the ramparts of Red Fort. No paper files should come to him, and issues should be settled through the internet. Efforts are also on to make Vajpayee sign digitally before August 15.

On August 5, Mahajan is to present a paper on e-security before the Internal Security ministers of the country. He is also all set to overhaul the National Informatics Centre. But that can wait, at least until the monsoon session is over.

The taming of Ananth Kumar

Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav and Petroleum Minister Ram Naik are not alone in resisting divestment in PSUs under their ministries. Tourism and Culture Minister Ananth Kumar also worked hard at scuttling divestment in hotels run by the ITDC. The file for the appointment of a global advisor for divesting the government’s stake in hotels was sent to him in February, but he didn’t sign. He wanted the government to tell him the modalities to be adopted by the global adviser in assessing the net worth of each hotel, future business potential, market value of land and building and so on. When he was informed that these issues had already been settled in the Modern Foods case and any new proposals could be discussed at the time of finalisation of the contract, he sent word that the file would be cleared by the end of May. Nothing happened, though. The Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment met on June 23 without the ITDC case file on its table. Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha moved a proposal at the CCD that theMinistry of Disinvestment under Arun Jaitley be given powers to appoint global advisers in all those companies which are to be offloaded. Ananth Kumar was stumped while the rest signed on the dotted line.

Disinvesting power, Jaitley style

Disinvestment Minister Arun Jaitley may be bull-dozing other ministries to meet the Rs 10,000 crore target. But in his own Information and Broadcasting ministry, there is no devolution of power. After a large number of employees and officers complained against Rajiv Ratan Shah, CEO, Prasar Bharati Corporation, Jaitley decided to appoint one Director-General each for Doordarshan and AIR. He has also decided to fill a number of vacant posts in the board. Jaitley even rejected Shah’s proposal to promote a junior officer to the rank of joint secretary. Though Shah had issued orders to promote the officer and sent the file to Jaitley for post-facto approval, the Minister rejected it. Jaitley is also worried over the shrinking viewership base of DD channels under Shah.