Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recalls her interactions with former bureaucrat B.S.Raghavan
The Hindu
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman remembers late bureaucrat B.S. Raghavan's advice and influence at memorial function.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday recalled her interactions and the advice given to her by former bureaucrat B.S.Raghavan, who passed away recently.
Mr. Raghavan belonged to the West Bengal IAS cadre of 1952. He had held senior positions in the governments of West Bengal and Tripura, and retired as West Bengal Chief Secretary.
Sharing some of the interactions she had with him at memorial function ‘Celebrating the life of a formidable intellect: Memorial in honour of Late B.S.Raghavan, IAS’, she said, “When I moved over to Defence Ministry, he did give gave me an advice, which said: it is a Ministry that had lot of challenges, not just the border issues, but maintaining the harmony between the uniformed and the civil arms.”
The Minister also said that his advice was sought by most political parties in Tamil Nadu. “That shows how versatile he was. There was no element of prejudice, no element of subjectivity and no element of playing one against the other,” she said.
Ms. Sitharaman mentioned that she has immensely benefited from the articles written by Raghavan in The Hindu Businessline. She recalled her discussions with him on the importance of technology and how it was necessary to bring in efficiency with technology.
S. Gurumurthy, Editor of The Thuglak, recalled his long years of friendship with Raghavan. Senior Advocate N.L.Rajah shared a presentation that has some rare pictures of Raghavan. Many other senior advocates and former government officials, who were present at the memorial function, shared their views about him. Former Chief Election Commissioners T. S. Krishnamurthy and N. Gopalaswami were present.
The Election Commission has seized a whopping ₹557.69 crore from March 16, when the model code of conduct (MCC) for the Lok Sabha election came into force, till the end of the final phase of polling on May 7 in the State. This is the highest-ever pre-poll seizure that has been done in Karnataka. During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, ₹88.27 crore was seized, according to data from the Election Commission. This is apart from the seizure of goods worth ₹348.71 crore by the Commercial Taxes Department. These goods include iron ore and ghutka, the proceeds of which would have been used for inducements. Besides, from August last year to March 16, poll personnel seized cash and goods worth ₹537 crore in Karnataka. The seizures include ₹151 crore in cash, liquor worth ₹42 crore, drugs worth ₹126 crore, gold worth ₹71 crore, and other items valued at ₹144 crore.