on file

SINCE the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Madhya Pradesh in December last year, the state government’s administrative machinery appears to have been excessively politicised as ruling party MLAs and organisational functionaries now have a direct say when it comes to transfers and postings of government officers and employees…

The coordination machinery of the BJP has the maximum say when it comes to transfers and posting of government officers and employees at all levels. A senior state government functionary heading an important revenue earning department told this correspondent on condition of anonymity that the established system of tours and inspections was very helpful earlier in assessing the performance of officers posted in the field…

He said that under the present dispensation, proposals to transfer officers on disciplinary grounds mostly end up in the dustbin and the same officers succeed in procuring even more “lucrative” assignments if they are able to develop links with the powerful ruling party MLAs and other functionaries. This, more or less, has become the order of the day he added.

 --- The Hindu, September 1

IN sensational testimony before the Nanavati-Shah commission of inquiry inquiring into the 2002 Gujarat riots, a top Gujarat police official graphically revealed here on Tuesday how senior BJP politicians then in power in the state had interfered in the functioning of the police during the post-Godhra riots and prevented the force from controlling the violence.

Mr R B Sreekumar, who was then state intelligence chief and is now additional DGP (police reforms), told the commission: “Police officials were helpless and depressed due to the interference of politicians in controlling the riots.” Mr Sreekumar was unceremoniously removed as state intelligence chief when he allegedly leaked his departmental report saying that the state was not ready for Assembly elections soon after the riots in 2002.

---The Asian Age, September 1    

SOME 1.3 million Americans slid into poverty in 2003 as the ranks of the poor rose four per cent to 35.9 million, with children and blacks worse off than most, the Census Bureau said in its annual poverty report.

Despite the economic recovery, the percentage of the US population living in poverty rose for the third straight year to 12.5 per cent – the highest since 1998 – from 12.1 per cent in 2002. One-third of those in poverty were children.

---The Hindustan Times, August 28