Manish Kumar
Post News Network
New Delhi, June 14: The recent reshuffle of IAS officers in New Delhi was seen as a routine administrative exercise but one such move has certainly raised several eyebrows in bureaucratic circles.
The transfer of 1985-batch Orissa cadre (53), who was the joint secretary in petroleum ministry, was shifted to water resources ministry as additional secretary.
The move to shift Singh from petroleum ministry was reported to have annoyed the PMO over the projection of Dharmendra Pradhan, minister of state (MoS) in petroleum and natural gas, as one of the top five in Modi government in a leading news magazine.
The projection showed Pradhan as having surpassed even senior most leaders like Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj in terms
of clout.
Interestingly, the magazine had also bagged an advertisement from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) when Singh was joint secretary of the ministry while Pradhan worked as the MoS. Soon after the row, Singh was shunted to another department along with seven others from other departments who got additional secretary postings.
It was reported the official was shifted due to an adverse CAG report on Gujarat state petroleum corporation (GSPC), a PSU, which came down heavily on the state government for mismanagement in exploration and other issues causing financial losses.
It is suspected that Singh was looking into questions raised against the GSPC and may have hurt a few in the process which could have led to his departure from the petroleum minister.
Bureaucrats in petroleum ministry, however, refute the claims. A senior IAS officer who earlier served in the ministry and well-known with the developments told Orissa POST, “Joint secretary-level officers have little role in giving ads to newspapers/magazines. The whole process of making seven new additional secretaries was done keeping in view the vacant positions in different ministries and no foul play as claimed by media in terms of transfer of U P Singh was involved.”
Write-ups and special articles to woo ministries and ministers are not new in media world. A few months back, the magazine published a special supplement on Orissa tourism for which the state government is alleged to have paid some amount to the publisher.
‘‘The state government invested some amount in publishing the supplement which projected the tourism potential of Orissa. The department also supplied material for the supplement which were also checked by the department before publication,’’ said a source in Orissa Tourism department.
The issue also focused on Orissa tourism minister Ashok Chandra Panda, tourism secretary Gagan Dhal and tourism director Nitin Jawale with their messages and photos in the magazine.
