GOVT REJECTS 2 AVIATION MIN APPOINTMENT PROPOSALS

NEW DELHI: The government has shot down two key appointment proposals of the aviation ministry, setting tongues wagging in bureaucratic corridors.

The aviation ministry was infor med last week by the Department of Personnel and Training that it should “reconsider” its proposal to appoint AP Maheshwari as the new chief of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) — the country’s aviation security regulator.

Maheshwari is a 1984-batch IPS officer and is currently posted as additional directorgeneral with the Border Security Force. His name was selected by the aviation ministry from a panel of three officers sent by the home ministry, and was forwarded for approval to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The post of BCAS chief has been lying vacant for three years. It is an extremely sensitive posting and its very surprising why there has been such a long delay in filling up the vacancy when there is no dearth of officers,” a senior ministry official said.

In the second case, aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju’s proposal to appoint G Asok Kumar, a 1991-batch IAS official, as the country’s representative to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in Montreal, Canada was over-ruled by the ACC, which instead approved 1994-batch IAS Alok Shekhar’s name for the post. The Montreal posting is for a three-year period.

While Shekhar’s last posting was with the the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority, Kumar was a joint secretary in the aviation ministry.