New Delhi (28.10.2021): The acceptance of the resignation of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Development of Museums and Cultural Spaces (DM & CS) Raghavendra Singh has opened up an interesting side window to the government functioning.
And the view that one gets from this side window is that the new post of CEO of DM&CS was exclusively created for Singh as a sort of post-retirement reward. The exclusivity of the post is seen in the fact, that following Singh's resignation, the post is abolished and the earlier office of National Museum DG is restored along with the Recruitment Rules (RR) which was tweaked to make provisions for Raghavendra Singh. The story of the upgraded post began with Singh and ended with him only.
What earned Singh such a unique distinction?
While officials were puzzled over Singh's resignation a year before his high-profile three-year tenure, it now seems quite likely that he might have been encouraged to resign for reasons best known to the government. For, it is incomprehensible that an official may abandon his post-retirement reward the way Singh did.
Readers may recall that after Raghavendra Singh retired as Union Culture Secretary, the Centre created a special post of DM & CS by upgrading the additional secretary rank post of Director-General, National Museum to a Secretary-rank post of CEO, DM & CS and gave it to Singh as a sort of reward for his distinguished services on 12 September 2019 for a period of three years ending 11.09.2022.
Whatever, in a nonchalant official notification issued on Tuesday, mentioned that among the many decision taken on the day, the ACC also approved Singh's resignation. It also mentioned the abolition of the post of CEO, DM & CS, and restoration of the post of DG National Museum in Higher Administrative Grade along with its Recruitment Rules.
The restored post of the National Museum DG has been assigned as the additional charge to Partha Sarthi Sensharma (Additional Secretary, in the Ministry of Culture) and an additional charge of Director, Nehru Memorial Museum Library (NMML) to Ms. Lily Pandeya, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Culture for six months each.
(By Rakesh Ranjan)