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Ex-IAS officer Shakti Sinha is new Nehru Memorial director

Shakti Sinha will receive a fixed amount of Rs 2.25 lakh per month, and his tenure will run for three years.

WEEKS AFTER Nehru Memorial and Museum and Library (NMML) executive council member Pratap Bhanu Mehta resigned in protest against the candidature of former bureaucrat Shakti Sinha as the premier research institution’s next director, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on Thursday approved the latter’s name for the post.

Sinha will receive a fixed amount of Rs 2.25 lakh per month, and his tenure will run for three years.

Sinha’s name had been recommended by the Ministry of Culture more than a month ago. With the committee giving its nod, this is perhaps the most high-profile appointment made to any top institution by the ministry this year.

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The NMML was operating without a director after Mahesh Rangarajan quit last September.

Sinha had served as private secretary and joint secretary to Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998-99. He also served as a director of the RSS-affiliated think-tank India Foundation.

Festive offer

Mehta had opposed Sinha’s candidature on the ground that the terms and conditions for the director’s office were modified to accommodate Sinha. While the advertisement approved by the executive council said that candidates for the post should be a “scholar or writer”, the advertisement finally published read: “scholar, writer or administrator”.

Sinha is not a scholar or a writer, but qualifies under the criterion of administrator.

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While the Culture Ministry went ahead with Sinha’s candidature, the time taken by the appointments committee to ratify his name had prompted the ministry to consider another name.

Sinha has his task cut out now. The NMML has hardly seen any major academic activity or seminar in the last year. Among the routine works pending include the award of fellowships and appointment of staff.

First uploaded on: 30-09-2016 at 00:54 IST
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