When it comes to choosing officers, Road Transport and Shipping Minister T R Baalu is very selective, and this is evident in the way he changed the Chairman of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) twice in a year.Thanks to his penchant for the “right” man, the crucial post of Shipping Secretary — at a time when Sethusamudram is a topic of discussion — is vacant even though the UPA Government has appointed three bureaucrats for top jobs in other departments in the last three days.A K Mahapatra retired from the post of Shipping Secretary on Thursday, but so far no one has been named as his successor. Baalu has been pitching for shifting Road Transport Secretary Brahm Dutt to the department. Sources said Baalu changed track after Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar turned down his request to give Dutt the additional charge of Shipping.Baalu got Jivtesh Singh Maini ousted from NHAI exactly two months after pushing for his appointment as Chairman. Maini had replaced Pradeep Kumar last August when Baalu moved Vijay Singh — then Road Transport & Highways Secretary — as Defence Secretary.While Singh had served one year, Kumar had done barely 10 months before being sent as Disinvestment Secretary.Of late, the Government has been making piecemeal appointments of secretaries, clearing names in twos and threes.
