Narendra Modi seems to be hitting sixers after sixers of reforms. He decision asking his ministers to avoid appointing family-members as their personal staff is a good precedent. Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) has simultaneously issued a circular reminding requirement of approval of Appointment Committee of Cabinet (ACC) for all appointments of all personal staff of ministers. Many Union ministers in earlier governments had their family-members as personal staff. Shri Modi should also ensure that even the MPs should not be allowed to misuse public-funds in appointing their family members as personal staff. It is also necessary to abolish grossly-misused MPLADS which even Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Planning Commission termed useless and corruption-generating.
(Subhash Chandra Agrawal, RTI Activist)
