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Post-Hindalco row, no IAS officer will clear any file: ex-Cabinet secretary

The UPA government's attempts to dispel perceptions of a prolonged policy drift by pressing ahead with high-visibility reforms and project clearances could come a cropper after the action initiated by investigating agencies against ex-coal secretary PH Parakh who retired eight years ago, a former top bureaucrat has warned.

"The government is doing a lot of drama and activity in the name of turning around the economy, whether it is easing FDI norms or fast-tracking investment projects through the Cabinet Committee on Investments.

But after this episode, no babu in his right mind is going to clear any files, especially in such cases," former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian told ET. "The analogy (in the Hindalco case) is the same.

If an official recommends a project that is then cleared by the CCI chaired by the PM, will he be safe in the future? If he's not, as has been demonstrated by the action against Parakh, why would he stick his neck out for anything?" questioned Subramanian.

Stressing that the government had no auction policy in place for the coal blocks, when Kumar Mangalam Birla allegedly met Parakh regarding the blocks, he said: "I am sure that Parakh wasn't the only person Birla met about it.

He must have met others in the government too, including senior officials in the Prime Minister's Office." "Parakh made a recommendation on the file, which the prime minister approved.

What or where is the conspiracy in this?" the ex-cabinet secretary inquired, adding that the policy paralysis attributed to UPA's recent years will get 'further embedded and institutionalised as nobody will recommend anything'.

Source: The Economic Times