Govt removes principal information officer

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government has removed Principal Information Officer Sahib Singh and appointed Shakuntala Mahawal to look after his duties.

The PIO's removal has been approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.

Singh has been put on compulsory wait.

The Union Home Ministry issued the orders on Monday. Singh is due to retire in April this year.
 
There was speculation in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry past couple of days that Singh could be removed after he joined a dharna by information officers protesting the arbitrary manner in which Deepak Chaurasia was inducted into Doordarshan as a consulting editor and was allowed to take all day-to-day decisions on news gathering and presentation.

Chaurasia is a former Aaj Tak correspondent.

Senior Indian Information Service officers, who were calling the shots before Chaurasia came in, naturally resent his presence.

Several IIS officers, including Deepak Sandhu and Neelam Kapur, had joined the dharna..

The government holds the IIS lobby responsible for leaking details of Chaurasia's contract to the media.

According to insiders, Sudheendra Kulkarni, who is with PIB as an advisor, is likely to succeed Sahib Singh after the
elections.