Modi tells babus to use social media for public welfare, not self-praise

PM says anonymity greatest strength of the civil services, but use of social media should not lead to its decline

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told bureaucrats on Friday to avoid using social media for self-promotion, stressing that mobile phones were banned from his meetings because he often found officers checking the internet during discussions.

“I see these days that districtlevel officers are so busy, busy, that most of their time goes into it (social media). I have stopped the entry (of mobile phones) in my meetings as they (officers) would take them out and start (checking out social media sites),” Modi said in his address at a function in New Delhi to mark the Civil Services Day.

Social media should be used for the welfare of the people and not for self-praise, he told bureaucrats, asserting his government has the “extra” political will to carry out reforms.

“If I am informing the people about dates of polio vaccination through social media, saying that they should come out on a particto ular date for the vaccination, then it (social media) is helpful. But if during vaccination-related work, I am praising my own photograph on Facebook, then it puts a question mark (on the work done by civil servants),” said Modi.

Modi has more than 29 million Twitter followers with whom he constantly interacts besides using the 140-character interface highlight government programmes.

Modi said anonymity is one of the greatest strengths of the civil services but the use of social media should not lead to a decline in this strength.

Of late, quite a few bureaucrats have courted controversies for their online posts. He also praised bureaucrats, saying that they have excellence stamped on them.

In a lighter vein, he said that he was not a part of the bureaucracy because he did not get the chance “to attend coaching (to qualify the civil service exam)”.

"It is my good luck that I am in public service for the past 16 years...i did not get the chance to attend coaching,” he said, and then turned to his principal secretary Nripendra Mishra who was also on the dais.

The Prime Minister then asked him what rank he would have reached after 16 years in service. “Deputy secretary? Director?" he said, after consulting Mishra. "So, I should have come in the director category."

Former BJP Member of Parliament (MP) Ram Vilas Vedanti on Friday said it was he, and not senior leader LK Advani, who provoked kar sevaks to demolish the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.

Addressing media persons at his residence here, Vedanti claimed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) presented wrong facts before the Supreme Court.

“When the mosque was being razed, Ashok Singhal, Mahant Avaidyanath and I exhorted the kar sevaks to bring the structure down,” Vedanti said.

“While we were inciting the mob, Murli Manohar Joshi, Advani and Vijayraje Scindia were trying to stop the volunteers,” he added.

Vedanti said the mosque had to be demolished so that a makeshift Ram temple could be constructed on its ruins. “It was I who said ‘ek dhakka aur do, Babri Masjid tod do’,” he claimed.

“It does not matter if I am hanged for making this statement. The mosque was in a dilapidated state and could have collapse any time as it had faced 400 rainy seasons,” he said.

He demanded that the 67.77 acre acquired land around the disputed site should be handed over to the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas.

Vedanti is among the 13 people who have been accused of conspiracy by the CBI.

His statement comes after the Supreme Court asked the special court in Lucknow to proceed with the trial against Advani, Joshi, Uma Bharti, and Vinay Katiyar, among others.

For decades, influential politicians and industrialists ran roughshod on the fragile ecology of Kerala’s scenic Munnar as they bulldozed through lush forests and valleys to build resorts, shopping plazas and hotels.

The land mafia, with backing of local leaders, indiscriminately felled trees to make way for highrises in what the courts have called “rape of mother nature”.

But now, a young IAS officer says he is taking the mafia head on, serving eviction notices to 100-odd resorts and commercial establishments in the past month. Sriram Venkataraman, 30, has stirred protests in the area and even received a public threat from controversial Kerala minister and local strongman, MM Mani.

But the 2013-cadre officer is unfazed. “I am not afraid of anyone. I am only implementing the law of the land,” says the sub-collector, also a doctor, who bagged the second rank in the tough civil services examination.

He has earned praise from former chief minister and Left stalwart VS Achuthanandan, who led a massive demolition drive in the misty hills of Munnar a few years ago, pulling down 92 illegal buildings and resorts.

Others are less than impressed. Devikulam MLA S Rajendran (CPI-M), who built a palatial house at the heart of Munnar town, said the sub-collector was illegally dubbing valid residents as encroachers.

“It is nothing but mere publicity stunt. It seems the sub-collector is carried away by media glitz,” he said. Rajendran also had a running feud with Achuthanandan, who had called the

While Latur came as a huge setback for the Congress in Marathwada, the other city in the region, Parbhani, provided some consolation to the party. Congress emerged as a single-largest party by winning 31 out of 65 seats. The NCP, which had 30 seats in the outgoing civic body and was major ruling partner, saw its tally coming down to 18.

Congress and NCP are expected to join hands to form the civic body. The Congress was also relived that the All India Majlis-e-ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) could not win any seat despite an extensive campaign by its leaders. The AIMIM had made a dent in Congress’ minority votes in the 2014 elections.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, while commenting on the results, told HT, “We have marked a significant victory in Chandrapur and Latur. It is true that we could not do well in Parbhani, but it was expected as we do not have leadership in the district.”

The defeat in Latur is believed to be a setback Amit Deshmukh as the district has been their family citadel for more than two decades. The party under Deshumukh’s leadership had lost the district council elections, too, in February. Congress state unit chief Ashok Chavan said, “Although we lost in Latur, we have improved our tally in Parbhani and can now install party Mayor. The newer generation of the leaders at district level should take a note of the defeat.”

The Congress could not effectively counter the allegations of corruption and failed administration in the civic body during its stint in the past five years.

BJP leader and labour minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar, who led the campaign and has emerged as new face of the district, said, “It has been the result of the our government’s impressive performance in past MLA a part of the land mafia.

At stake is the delicate ecosystem of the picturesque Munnar, situated 1800 m above sea leavel, that houses two national parks and two wildlife sanctuaries that collectively hold more than 3,000 species of flowers, endangered birds, insects, mammals and amphibians.

“Once they encroach on land, they legalise it and manage survey number and other details somehow. It is an organised activity going unhindered over a period of time,” Sriram said adding land-grabbing was going at an alarming rate.

The officer says he has faced week-long protests by the ruling CPI(M) for serving notices to 100odd resorts and unauthorised constructions.

He also put on notice cardamom and tea plantations, which were on lease, for converting estates into resorts. Last week, a worried government beefed up his security. Two ruling alliance partners, CPI(M) and CPI, even two-and-a-half years. We stood by the people during the acute shortage of water last year. We are committed for the development of Latur.”

BJP had bagged eight of the 10 municipal corporations that went to polls in February. In district council and municipal council elections held in February and September-october last year, the saffron party won highest seats.

In Chandrapur civic elections, for the first time in the history, the BJP won an absolute majority, capturing 36 seats out of 66 in the municipal elections held on April 19. According to available information, initially, a neckand-neck battle was on. However, later the BJP emerged as the largest party in the 66-member house. The Congress bagged only 12 seats while the NCP, Shiv Sena and MNS got two seats each.

Pradhan said daily cashless transactions have increased from ~150 crore a day to ~400 crore.

About 350 million people come to fuel stations every day, accounting for ~2,500 crore in transactions every year.

Shebu was finally caught by a mob, which thrashed him and handed him over to the police.

The police said the woman has been admitted in the ICU of Cooper Hospital and her intestine has been injured. Senior police inspector Bharat Gaikwad of Amboli police station said, “We have arrested him [Shebu] and charged him for rape, criminal trespass and attempt to murder.”

The complaint was filed in 2012 for the alleged violation in 2009. locked horns over his operation

The trouble began last month when he started implementing a government order to give con struction licences only after examining land-holding records in at least five ecologically sensitive villages in Devilukam taluk.

The records revealed grave irregularities. Sriram says encroachers included politi cians, religious leaders, govern ment officials and businessmen

During an eviction drive last week, police present ignored his order to evict people, fearing a local backlash.

Later, he had to contact higher officials to rush more forces to evict protestors.

With the sub-collector remaining adamant, CPI(M) workers, who had encroached on the government land, them selves demolished sheds and concrete fences. State revenue minister E Chandrasekharan and nature-lovers lauded his nitiative.

Kulkarni was arrested on charges of cheating, trafficking obscenity, and violation of provi sions of the Information Tech nology Act, 2000, following the Bombay high court’s directive the police to register an FIR in the matter and immediately take up investigation.

According to police, the daughters of the complainants left their home after they came under Kulkarni’s influence.

They said Kulkarni was a visiting faculty at the college of the elder daughter, a law gradu ate, who later introduced her younger sister, a student of architecture, to him.

During searches at Kulkarni’s residence, police said, they did not find any educational degree to prove he was a doctor, though they found letter heads and visit ing cards describing him as one.

They couldn’t find his name on the registers of the Medica Council of India or the Nagpur based institute he claimed to have graduated from.

His finances would also be probed as police said they found signed cheque books and debit and credit cards that did not belong to Kulkarni at his resi dence. The police are checking if he extorted money from the own ers of the cards.

The bench asked: “Is this the remedy (to make Aadhaar man datory)?”

The government had amended the tax proposals in its annual budget’s finance bill to accommodate its step to link Aadhaar with PAN.

But it denied breaching the top court’s order in the amend ments to the law.

The Centre said the court order is meant for social welfare schemes, not for services such as driving licence and PAN cards.