New power corp chief under cloud
Manoj Mitta , TNN 24 November 2009,
Damodar Valley Corporation

NEW DELHI: A week after it announced Subrata Biswas as chairman of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), the power ministry got a shock from the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), asking it to revisit the appointment as there were at least three cases of disciplinary action against him.

While the ministry promoted Biswas from DVCs secretary to its chairman on October 13, CVCs secretary K S Ramasubban wrote to power secretary H S Brahma on October 20 saying, it is not understood how the ministry processed his appointment without vigilance clearance from the commission.CVCs letter, a copy of which is with TOI, pointed out that in a case arising out of some works in DVC, it has advised disciplinary action against Biswas and that in two more cases, his role has been found to attract disciplinary action. As a result, CVC said that the ministry may like to revisit their decision.

When the ministry had first sought vigilance clearance for Biswas in April, CVC got back the following month asking for his biodata and his service record for at least 10 years. Rather than supplying the desired information to CVC, the ministry recommended his appointment without vigilance clearance to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which then obtained the approval of the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC).

Power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, when contacted, passed the buck to Brahma, who, in turn, blamed DoPT for proposing Biswas to ACC without the necessary vigilance clearance. Yes, as the administrative ministry, we did send Biswas name to CVC, but it was for DoPT to obtain vigilance clearance before placing the matter before ACC,Brahma said.
CVC however pooh-poohed Brahmas attempt to absolve himself of any culpability. Ramasubban clarified that in the first place, the ministry should have furnished further details sought by CVC about Biswas and then waited for vigilance clearance before forwarding his name to DoPT.

There is no way an administrative ministry can walk away from its responsibility of getting vigilance clearance for a board-level appointment,Ramasubban said.

In a bid to play down his dereliction of duty, the power secretary also claimed that vigilance clearance was required only in the case of PSUs and not a statutory body like DVC, which was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1948 for independent Indias first multipurpose river valley project.

Asked why the need for probity would be any less in the case of a statutory body, Brahma said he was only trying to show that there was no intentional lapse on his part. Ramasubban confirmed that doubts have been raised by the power ministry about the need for vigilance clearance for top posts in statutory and autonomous bodies and added that the Cabinet secretariat would have to resolve this systemic issue, which has a bearing on the integrity of public administration.