The former Infosys boss, Dr Nandan Nilekani, now chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), has finally got a taste of governmental and bureaucratic functioning, says a Deccan Chronicle report.
Finding it difficult to attract senior bureaucrats to work for him, Dr Nilekani has complained to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, that several ministries were not releasing the officers he sought, leaving the UIDAI understaffed.
Informed sources told The Deccan Chronicle that Nilekani informed the Prime Minister of the difficulties he faced in sourcing top-level talent from within the government through a note for the Cabinet Committee on UIDAI dated May 12.
He said while his organisation needed 383 personnel at various levels, for which it had secured the approval of the empowered finance committee as well as the finance ministry's sanction, progress in filling the posts had not been very encouraging.
Nilekani, in his complaint to the Prime Minister gave instances of how the reluctance of certain ministries to release their officers was making the work of the UIDAI difficult.
To prove his point, Nilekani elaborated the trend with examples.
The note to the Cabinet Committee on UIDAI stated: “At the level of deputy director-general at headquarters, though the persons for all posts were identified, the process of issuing orders and their reporting has not yet been completed, with the result that only four out of seven have joined so far. At the field level, only two have joined.”
