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Dinkar Khullar,Indias envoy in Brussels,is set to be back as Secretary (west) in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Dinkar Khullar,Indias envoy in Brussels,is set to be back to South Block as Secretary (west) in the Ministry of External Affairs. Khullar and Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh go a long way back from their days in Delhi School of Economics to their under secretary-ship days when they used to handle Bhutan and Nepal,respectively,and shared office space. Singhs predecessor,Ranjan Mathai who retired in July,has been made the Indian envoy to the UK. And Sujatha Singhs previous station,Germany,will have Vijay Gokhale as the new ambassador. While Gokhale moves from Malaysia,T S Tirumurti joint secretary in the UN division will be headed for Kuala Lumpur.

THE GREEN TILT

From politically sensitive to environmentally sensitive,that appears to be the next focus of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). Word is out that among the last CAG reports to be tabled in this extended session of Parliament is an all-India audit of central and state funds meant for afforestation,a huge volume of which have been found by the auditors to be unutilised. Thus,while deforestation has gone on at a rapid pace in several states,the replacement of forest cover,the CAG has concluded,has been abysmally poor. The next major CAG audit report will be on the KG basin gas block for which the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has now promised the CAG all assistance and documents. That report is expected to be tabled in Parliament early next year.

ALREADY IN CHARGE

While an official announcement is yet to be made,the Armed Forces Tribunal has got a new chairperson after the retirement of Justice A K Mathur who took over in 2008. Former Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court Prakash Tatia has now taken charge of the tribunal. Even though his appointment has not yet been announced by the Defence Ministry,his name has already gone up as the chairperson on the tribunals website.

EXPANDING BASE

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a popular tourist destination but are also coming up as a major military base that gives India a toehold into South East Asia. This came into demonstration on Tuesday when a group of combat aircraft made a stopover in Port Blair. The aircraft three Gripen fighters accompanied by a C 130 were on their way from Sweden to Thailand,that has ordered the new fighters. While the stopover was supposed to be a routine one to fuel up the fighters,it ended up being an overnight halt as one of the aircraft from the group developed a snag that had to be rectified at the Indian military air base.