July 30, 2002 | 1650 IST
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Money > Business Headlines > Report July 30, 2002 | 1650 IST |
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Angry Jaswant orders 'operation clean-up'R Prema in New Delhi North Block, the seat of India's finance ministry, is a study in avoidable contrast: swanky offices pockmarked with invasive filth. But the muck has got to Finance Minister Jaswant Singh.
Singh has issued a 90-day ultimatum to implement 'operation clean-up' and tidy the place to give it a "totally new look." Apparently, the walls stained by paan spits and beverages were the first to greet Jaswant Singh as he assumed office. Sources said he expressed his disgust as he went around the finance ministry offices: everywhere he went he found filth and stains. This is what welcomes all visitors, be they the staff, the ordinary folk or foreign firms' representatives, at the prestigious building. "How can we possibly convey a sense of pride or confidence to the visitors when the files that are supposed to be cleared, as is apparent from the tags they have, lie in the open all over the corridors in wooden and steel almirahs?" Jaswant Singh asked in a two-page note he sent out on July 27 to his four senior IAS officers. The letter -- sent to the four secretaries in-charge of revenue, expenditure, banking, and economic affairs, and also circulated to their subordinates -- makes it clear that Singh wants that ministry of finance to set an example in cleanliness for other ministries. Singh has asked as to who would trust the ministry in carrying out its primary functions when the dusty files reveal the sorry story. He also expressed concern over the apparent disdain for cleanliness, aesthetics and dignity. The note also points out to the stained walls and "peons smoking bidis." He is said to have categorically stated that money will not be constraint, "but I will not have an unkempt ministry of finance." Cleaning the ministry premises is now being given top priority, as the finance minister wants the North Block to be as presentable and clean as possible. Within 90 days. The letter further stated that if there is no remedy then let 'housekeeping be taken away from the Central Public Works Department', but operation clean-up needs to be implemented immediately. "The goal is very clear. I want, within 90 days, the ministry of finance in the North Block to have a totally transformed, new look," Singh said in the letter. B P Misra, additional secretary (expenditure), the officer in-charge of this 'operation' is, however, not quite pleased with the sudden turn of things. He also has the task of reporting to Jaswant Singh at the end of the 90-day deadline after seeing to it that the place is immaculate. Sources say Misra could have picked for the assignment as he was once the chairman of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation, one of whose primary tasks was to keep the city clean. ALSO READ:
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The new finance minister expressed shock - and then anger - at the disgraceful state that the dust-laden 'tagged' files lie in, in open racks along the North Block corridors that are liberally spray-painted with paan spits and tea stains.