Latest news with #Somanathan
The Hindu
30-04-2025
- The Hindu
Kochi City police to step up vigil around apartment complexes following high-profile drug bust cases
The Kochi City police are set to step up vigilance around apartment complexes in the wake of two high-profile incidents, in which two prominent Malayalam film directors and a rapper were nabbed with suspected ganja from two different apartments in the city on successive days earlier this week. In the first incident, directors Khalid Rahman and Ashraf Hamsa were nabbed by the Excise department, allegedly with 1.50 grams of suspected hybrid ganja in an apartment at Marine Drive during a pre-dawn raid on Sunday (April 27, 2025). The very next day, popular rapper Vedan (Hirandas Murali) and eight others were allegedly caught smoking suspected ganja, while another 6 grams of suspected ganja were seized from his apartment along the Vyttila-Kaniyambuzha road. In both cases, the accused were released on bail since the quantity seized from them was small. 'Since Kochi is home to a large floating population, many apartment associations are clueless about the tenants. Around two months ago, we provided office-bearers of apartment complexes with a pro forma for collecting the details of residents, including tenants. We will review its progress at our next interactive meeting and ensure its widespread implementation. Besides, residents have been asked to ensure that police verification certificates are obtained before engaging employees,' said Putta Vimaladitya, District Police Chief (Kochi City). The Kochi City police had shared a number for contacting the Kochi Commissionerate to pass on tip-offs confidentially. The police had been receiving considerable information through the number, he said. After being dormant for years, the monthly meeting of the Police Residents Initiative in Ernakulam District (PRIDE), a common platform for interaction between the police and representatives of residents' associations, was resumed last year. This was in addition to meetings between police officials and residents' associations under the Janamaithri Suraksha Project. V.S. Somanathan of the All Kerala Flat Owners' Association said that the long-standing demand to implement common guidelines for apartment associations had gone unheeded. This, he said, would help avert disputes involving tenants, their guests, and association staff. 'There is no real gatekeeping, as in many apartment complexes, tenants befriend the security guards with cash and alcohol so that they go easy on the visitors and their activities,' he said. Mr. Somanathan also urged apartment owners to be more cautious and not rent out their apartments to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, the Ernakulam District Residents' Associations' Apex Council (EDRAAC) has written to the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court for better coordination among law enforcement agencies in fighting the drug menace.
Hindustan Times
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Generalist civil servants cannot perform every task: Cabinet secretary TV Somanathan
Cabinet secretary TV Somanathan has backed the lateral entry of bureaucrats as a necessity, saying the same set of generalist civil servants recruited at a young age cannot perform every task. 'There will be tasks where we need to take people on lateral entry,' he said in his address to bureaucrats on 17th Civil Services Day on Monday, underlining this was his personal view and not as India's top civil servant. Somanathan called for competence and subject matter expertise among civil servants. 'The era, when we thought that a good generalist could do everything, is no longer available. We are partly addressing it through our capacity-building programme and lateral entry, which I believe will be a necessity in the future.' The comments came months after the government in August urged the Union Public Service Commission to cancel an advertisement for the lateral entry of 46 bureaucrats. The government suggested a review, keeping in mind reservation norms to ensure social equity, as a political row erupted over the issue. The suggestion came even as the government earlier pushed back against the criticism over lateral entry, saying the scheme began in the earlier United Progressive Alliance government. Bureaucrats are usually recruited through the All-India Civil Services exams. But lateral entrants, typically experts in a particular field, are inducted directly. No quota is currently applicable to these appointments. In his address, Somanathan lauded the civil servants for their role in maintaining India as an island of constitutional democracy in a sea of non-constitutional developments. 'When you look around us, you would not find a single example like India. You would not find a single country that has not gone through an overthrow of an elected leader, a government, a military coup, or violence. This has never happened in India since 1947.' He said this would not have happened without the central services. 'We have had free and fair elections. Governments have been defeated both at the Centre and in states in elections conducted by civil servants. All kinds of services are involved in elections. We have a smooth transfer of power whenever a government changes. We do not have tanks on the streets when there is a change of government. We also have the imposition of President's Rule, which passes off with no problems. Suddenly, there is one government, next moment there is another. But on the street, there is no difference. This is because if the civil services.' Somanathan called this an unqualified success, but said the track record of civil service officers has been much less effective with respect to impartial implementation. 'The poor and the weak are often treated shabbily in our government offices. We all preside over this. Corruption is widespread. Law enforcement is erratic. Political interference in beneficiary selection or appointments is not unknown.' He said there are many success stories of good and impartial implementation, too. Somanathan said they have been able to respond to the emerging demands and needs of different elected governments when they come into office and are able to design policies, programmes that broadly reflect their mandate. In his address to bureaucrats earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said they must transform into key enablers and facilitators of growth. He underscored the responsibility of civil servants to ensure that India becomes the world's third-largest economy at the earliest. Modi urged them to prevent any delays in achieving this critical objective. Modi asked bureaucrats to be tech-savvy and experts in data-driven decision-making. 'You are already witnessing how rapidly Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Physics are evolving... You must prepare yourselves ...for this future technology revolution to deliver the best services to citizens and meet their aspirations.'
Time of India
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Lateral entry will be a necessity in future: TV Somanathan
New Delhi: Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan while backing specialisation among bureaucrats said on Monday that lateral entry in civil services will become a necessity in the future as the same set of generalist civil servants cannot perform every task at the apex level, while asserting that it was his "personal view" and not as the top official of the Union government. In an interactive session with civil servants from across the country during the plenary session on Civil Services Day at Vigyan Bhawan here, Somanathan suggested several criteria on which civil servants should judge the effectiveness of the service, including protecting the constitutional order, impartial administration, translating the will of the elected government into policy, and promoting economic and social development. Somanathan said that in his personal assessment, protecting constitutional order by civil services has been an "unqualified success" as India is "an island of constitutional democracy in a sea of non-constitutional developments." The services remain politically neutral in safeguarding the constitutional order. However, he added that a politically neutral but inflexible and incapable civil service may do a lot of damage to economic development. "There are some who think that the Indian civil service is guilty of this. We may be politically very neutral and all that, but we are not actually very flexible and capable of promoting development," Somanathan said. Similarly, sharing his assessment of Indian civil services on impartial administration, Somanathan said the track record of civil services is "much less effective", ranging from "mixed to poor". On social and economic development, Somanathan said there is definitely a "need for greater competence and subject matter expertise" among civil servants, adding the era of good generalists is no longer going to be available to us.
Time of India
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Cabinet secy advocates differentiating ‘bonafide risk-taking' in bureaucracy; says Lateral Entry will be necessary for specific tasks
Cabinet secretary T V Somanathan NEW DELHI: Cabinet secretary T V Somanathan on Monday said there is a need to create an atmosphere that distinguishes between 'bona fide risk-taking' and 'mala fide risk-taking' by officers in their jobs. He acknowledged the concern of bureaucrats who face consequences later, even for making bold decisions in public interest. Somanathan also stated that, in his 'personal opinion', lateral entry will become a necessity in the future, as the same set of generalist civil servants cannot perform specific tasks at the apex level. Interacting with civil servants from across the country during the plenary session on Civil Services Day, Somanathan said, 'The era when we thought that the good generalist can do everything is no longer going to be available to us. Partly, we are addressing this weakness through our capacity building programmes... we are partly addressing it through lateral entry, which I believe will be a necessity in the future. I do not think that the same set of general list civil servants recruited at a young age can perform every task in the govt. At the apex level, there will be tasks where we need to take people on lateral entry.' In response to queries from some officers on 'risk avoidance' as a better rewarding strategy than making inadvertent mistake, which brings better results, Somanathan acknowledged the concern and said that today there is 'doubt in the mind of the officers' that if they take bold decisions in public interest, but it's unconventional or somebody at later raise question why he/she took such a decision and such audit objections, vigilance and internal complaints are raised at a later stage. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Free P2,000 GCash eGift UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo ' ...It is something that we have to work upon. We have to create an atmosphere where we are able to distinguish between bona fide risk taking and mala fide risk taking. We're not able to do it. Today, therefore we are discouraging all risk taking because we assume that all risk taking is mala fide. So, what has happened is we have driven out all the good risk taking; bona fide risk taking is eliminated from the system. Remaining risk taking is the mala fide type... systematically it's very difficult to take any bona fide risk,' Somanathan said. He pointed to how the same system that emphasises on accountability of civil servants also tends to create risk aversion. The top official said that the 'dilemma needs to be tackled in the Viksit Bharat journey'. Earlier, Somanthan suggested four criteria on which civil servants should judge the effectiveness of the service — protecting the constitutional order, impartial administration, translating the will of the elected govt into policy and promoting economic and social development. He said that bureaucracy has performed well in protecting the constitutional order by being politically neutral while mentioning that unlike the neighbouring countries India has seen no no coup or problems in transition of powers. However, he pointed out that a politically neutral but inflexible and incapable civil service is capable of protecting constitutional order but may do a lot of damage to economic development. 'And in fact, there are some who hold that the Indian civil service is a little bit guilty of this, that we may be politically very neutral and all that, but we are not actually very flexible or capable when it comes to actually promoting development,' he said. Somanthan, in his 'personal opinion', said that the poor and the weak are often treated shabbily in govt office while adding that political interference in beneficiary selection or appointments is not unknown.
The Hindu
21-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Civil services should get credit for smooth transfer of power: Cabinet Secretary
Cabinet Secretary T.V. Somanathan said on Monday (April 21, 2025) that unlike other countries in the neighbourhood which have seen military coup and violent overthrow of governments, India has always seen a smooth transfer of power for which the credit should go to the All India Services (AIS) and the civil services officials. He said it was the duty of the civil services to preserve the constitutional order such as democracy, rule of law, national unity and the federal structure. The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer said that in a democracy, it is the elected government which has the mandate, and it is the duty of the civil servant to assist the government in carrying out its policies. He said the officers should be politically neutral 'because we don't serve only those who belong to some particular party or a community.' Speaking on the occasion of Civil Services Day, Mr. Somanathan added that lateral entry will be a necessity in future and there was a need for greater competence and subject matter expertise among civil servants as the era of the good generalist was over. 'I think without the All India Services and the central services, free and fair elections would not be possible. Governments have been defeated both at the Centre and in the States in elections conducted by civil servants. We have smooth transfer of power whenever a government changes. We don't have tanks on the streets when there's a change of government. We also have imposition of President's rule, which passes off with no problem at all... That is because of the civil services. So, this is an unqualified success,' the country's top bureaucrat said during an interactive session on Civil Services Reforms - Challenges and Opportunities. He said that ever since transparency was introduced in the Annual Performance Assessment Report system for the AIS officers, it had become useless. 'And particularly in IAS, this is a disease. Everybody is between 9 and 10 (rating). There is not a single non outstanding IAS officer in the country, almost which is not true. There are crooks in our service. There are bad people in the service. How can everybody be 9 to 10,' Mr. Somanathan asked while responding to an Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer who suggested transparency in empanelment process of officers at joint secretary rank and above. 'There is a criterion that they should at least work for Government of India for two years and otherwise they will not be empanelled as Joint Secretary. But if somebody has applied for JS level position and in case he doesn't get a no objection certificate (NOC) by the State and the Centre doesn't pick that officer... the officer should be considered because it is not his fault. I know many junior officers who are suffering because of this rule... the officer is also not given any feedback on why the empanelment was not done... we have been hearing this for so many years that we need to promote transparency, if the same transparency is denied to us, why do you expect us to pass on that transparency downwards,' Amit Kumar, a 1995-batch IAS officer, asked. When Bidur Kant Jha, an officer appointed in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways through the lateral entry mode, asked about the low salary structure, the Cabinet Secretary remarked, 'Pay is not part of today's discussion.... you give it to the Pay Commission when it comes, but we are not talking about pay and benefits. So, if we are underpaid, we have alternative careers. We can pursue them.' V. Srinivas, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) said the respect for AIS officers emanates from a perception that decision making would be neutral and unbiased, and would enable the nation to achieve the objectives outlined in the preamble of the Constitution. Officials also spoke about multiple government schemes with overlapping features, and several web and mobile-based applications which they were unable to keep pace with. Earlier, while inaugurating the conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India's bureaucracy and policymaking cannot operate on outdated frameworks. He said the policies that his government is working on are going to shape the future of the next 1,000 years and asked everyone to work tirelessly towards this shared vision.
