NEW DELHI: The Centre has made Intelligence Bureau clearance mandatory for appointment of a private person as personnel secretary to a Union Minister.
The government made it clear that personal staff already working with the ministers without the IB clearance will have to go through t he procedure and the decision will depend on the recommendation of the spy agency. An official said the IB will forward its recommendation after examining the authenticity of the educational certificates and his or her past stints before granting clearance.
“Since they are handling important position and have access to sensitive information and government documents, it is necessary to check the background of the candidate. This directive is only for non-government officials,” he added.
In case of non-government officer to be appointment as Private Secretary (PS) or Officer of Special Duty (OSD), similar procedure will be followed, but the final approval will come from the Appointment Committee on Cabinet (ACC). The high-level panel has recently approved a former Joint Secretary in LS secretariat Brahm Dutt as PS to MoS Rao Inderjeet Singh. “Stringent assessment process is already going on for several other ministries,” sources said.
New Appointments
IPS officer Abhinav Kumar, who was earlier appointed as Private Secretary to MoS Home Kiren Rijiju, handed over the charge to Vikas Anand, a 2002 batch IPS officer, after the new directive of the government barred the officers who earlier served with UPA ministers.
The ACC also cleared the name of Nitesh Jha as OSD to Union HM Rajnath Singh. The government is also moving out lower staff who earlier served UPA ministers. Staff looking after appointments or handling files will be transferred within the respective ministry.