Modi bans ministers from hiring family members as personal staff

 More images for Mahinda Rajapaksa family members as personal staff

BY S VENKAT NARAYAN Our Special Correspondent-May 29, 2014

NEW DELHI, May 29: In a bid to clean up the administration, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised his council of ministers on Wednesday not to have their relatives as personal staff in their ministries.

This is a terrible sub-continental disease which has landed many politicians in several South Asian countries in serious trouble.

Modi has also asked ministers to discourage nepotism and granting government contracts to relatives and friends.

"Modi wants his team to practice probity in public dealing. He is leading from the front. He even did not invite his family members for the swearing-in ceremony," a cabinet minister pointed out.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) issued a directive on May 26 — the day Modi and 45 other leaders  took oath of office — asking all ministries and departments to ensure strict compliance of procedure for all appointments, including officers on special duty (OSDs), in the personal staff of the ministries.

"… prior approval of the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) is required for appointment in the minister’s personal staff (other than the private secretary) at deputy secretary and above level. For appointment of PS, ACC approval is required…" reads the office memo issued by the DoPT.

Incidentally, a couple of ministers in the previous NDA government under Atal Bihar Vajpayee had courted controversy by appointing their children as their OSDs.

The previous UPA government had also got bad press after a series of scams were unearthed involving ministers and their personal staff.

The most recent example was that of former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.

He had appointed a distant relative as his officer on special duty. His nephew Vijay Singla was allegedly found complicit in the cash-for-postings scam that led to Bansal’s sacking as the rail minister.

Modi seems to be learning from the mistakes his lax predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh had made and paid for in the recent elections.