It’s not often that the Centre gets the opportunity to undo Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s “excesses”. Fortunately for Promila Shanker, the IAS officer suspended by the Maya-wati government for “violating” service rules, in a rare intervention, the Centre has quashed the suspension, terming it “totally misplaced”.

Ms Shanker, the seniormost IAS officer in Uttar Pradesh, was suspended in September last year for going to Colombo without proper permission, though it was widely believed that the suspension order came after she submitted a report on the Yamuna Expressway Authority, pointing out deviations in the land acquisition procedures. Ms Mayawati had rejected her report.

But far from accepting her suspension, Ms Shankar challenged the state government’s order. She accused Ms Mayawati of “unleashing a reign of terror” and of “humiliating” her. Her stand appears to have been vindicated now. But if Behenji comes back to power, expect more fireworks.

Scam whistler
The travails of Sanjiv Chatur-vedi, the Indian Forest Service officer from Haryana, who blew the whistle on several scams in his state, are not over yet. The officer, who had put in a request for Central deputation but was denied the same by the state government, won a moral victory when an inquiry committee found that Mr Cha-turvedi had been wronged by the Haryana government and recommended that the scam exposed by him be handed over to the CBI for further action.

Unfortunately for Mr Chaturvedi, des-pite the vindication of his stand, the much-awaited CBI probe is yet to take off because the file for sanctioning further inquiries is with environment minister Jayanthi Natara-jan who has not acted on the request yet. Meanwhile, Mr Cha-turvedi’s request for Central deputation is also languishing even as, according to the sources, the same officials he blew the whistle on continue to enjoy plum postings.

Poll anxiety
The appointment of 1980-batch IAS officer Sudarsanam Srinivasan, who was slated to become Orissa’s chief electoral officer (CEO), as additional secretary at the department of space in Delhi, has babu circles in Bhubaneswar buzzing. The question of who will be the state’s next CEO is of some importance since the person is likely to handle the general elections and the Assembly elections due in 2014. Already, babu watchers note, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been making some key appointments, with a careful eye on improving his party’s prospects at the hustings. Insiders say that the new CEO is likely to be an officer from the 1981-86 batches.