Political appointee to head coffee board

Aiming to refurbish the functioning style of various boards under the Commerce Ministry including the Coffee Board, the Centre has decided to appoint a political leader as its chairman in place of a senior bureaucrat.

As per the note prepared by the Ministry of Commerce, soon it has been planned to make political appointee the chairman of boards related to coffee, tea, rubber and tobacco, in the first stage.

In the later stage, the government is also planning to make political appointee as head of boards functioning under other ministries.

The chairman of the board will be of Minister of State rank, and an IAS officer of the rank of joint secretary will serve as secretary to board, sources told Deccan Herald. The proposal is waiting for the approval of the Prime Minister’s Office.

With the receiving number of complaints from farmers and plantation owners that most of the boards were not helpful to them in addressing their problems, the government had decided to revamp its functioning.

With the Ministry of Commerce is focusing more on increasing the production of commercial crops including coffee, tea and rubber in the country, it wanted to spend more money on research as well as expansion.

“Instead of making a bureaucrat as its head, the government feel that appointment of a political leader would be better as he could deal with growers as well as higher governmental authorities,” said an official. 

By making political appointee as chairman, the government is also planning to accommodate some of its senior leaders in various government posts, he added, saying as per the existing norms, the government has the power to appoint any suitable person for these posts.

DH News Service