NBB director writes to ministry, wants to go back to parent cadre

The Union Human Resource Development Ministry, which has been entrusted to develop human resource, is still struggling to retain its officials. After heads of several institutions quitting the top post over some or other unknown reasons since the NDA <g data-gr-id="34">governmnet</g>-led by PM Narendra Modi came into power in May 2014, now it’s the turn of National Bal Bhawan (NBB) Director who has sought HRD Ministry’s ‘approval’ to be relived and enable her to go back to her parent cadre Navodaya Vidyalaya.

It’s worth mentioning here that in the recent past IIT-Delhi Director Raghunath K. Shevgaonkar, NCERT Director Pravin Sinclair, ICHR Member Secretary Gopinath Ravindran, etc has put in their papers while senior bureaucrats such as Jagmohan Raju, Veena Ish, Praveen Prakash, S Radha Chauhan, Amarjit Sinha, etc either shifted to other ministries or repatriated to their parent cadre.

According sources in the HRD Ministry, NBB Director Usha Kumari <g data-gr-id="28">MC,</g> is who’s appointment is embroiled in a controversy and the matter is under litigation in Delhi High Court, has forwarded a Navodaya Vidyalaya letter to the ministry asking her to come back from her deputation.

However, the Kumari’s “biased” appointment issue was also raked up in the Parliament during Budget Session this year, where the HRD Ministry had backed her selection. The tenure of Kumari as NBB director would come to an end in January 2016. Since, NBB is an autonomous body under the HRD Ministry, the final say in the matter of continuance of Kumari would be of NBB Chairman Shalu Jindal, the wife of senior Congress leader Navin Jindal. 

The then HRD Ministry MM Pallam Raju had ignored the HRD Ministry’s selection committee’s recommendation favouring Rishi Kumar Vashisht, currently Deputy Director at Centre for Cultural Resource and Training (CCRT). Kumari was favoured as she was <g data-gr-id="33">wife</g> of former Private Secretary to former HRD Minister late Arjun Singh.

In the panel of <g data-gr-id="29">list</g> in December 2012, Vashisht was followed by Usha Kumari. The search-cum-selection panel headed by the then Additional Secretary Amarjit Singh had indicated that if Vashisht denied, Usha was to be appointed. But when Vashisht did not get the appointment letter, he took a legal course.

Despite the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation to mark Teacher’s Day, Usha Kumari had given a complete miss to last year’s Teacher’s Day event organised at the institution and rather proceeded for a vacation to Chennai.