Running into rough weather

The woes of Indian Meteorological Department continue. The apex weather forecasting agency is without a regular chief for the last three years.

Almost three months ago, the government picked up an Indian Air Force meteorologist Ajit Tyagi for the IMD top job. But the scientists who responded to the original Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) advertisement published in October, 2006 seeking to fill up the IMD director general post went to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) arguing that injustice was being meted out to them.

They claim the UPSC cancelled the entire process, days after giving a date for interview but without actually interviewing them. And their age limit was over by the time the government initiated a fresh process to select the new IMD chief.

So without any fault of theirs, they were denied an opportunity to prove their worthiness to head the 200 year-old organisation. They knocked the door of CAT. The tribunal heard the two side’s arguments. The judgement is awaited.

Meanwhile, the absence of a fulltime director general is hampering the modernisation process of the IMD, which is up for an overhaul before the Commonwealth Games of 2010. The time is running out.

Dishing out old fare

Did the government by mistake talk about a Cabinet decision a week before it was actually cleared?

This question was in the minds of the media persons covering the Cabinet beat when it was announced last Thursday that a proposal for the establishment of the North Eastern Institute of Folk Medicine at Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh at a cost of Rs 32.88 crore had been improved.

The same decision had earlier been announced as having been approved by the Cabinet during the February 14 briefing by I&B Minister P R Dasmunsi.

When some media persons recalled this, the government spokesperson Deepak Sandhu said the decision had been taken at this week’s meeting.

Quite mysteriously, the previous week’s release has been removed from the archives of the Press Information Bureau website, obviously in an attempt to remove its traces, but unfortunately for the PIB, it has not been successful as various websites of newspapers and web-journals have the news on the February 14 “decision”, something which can be accessed by a simple use of the numerous search engines.