Cutting flab govt-style: Get cronies in.

(From The Times of India)

Byline: Sanjay Dutta

NEW DELHI: Perhaps it is the way it works, or it's just a matter of habit. The key attribute of the government is that what it gives with one hand it takes back with the other.

This is the spirit with which the government proposes to get rid of 10,000 low-level jobs and use the savings to promote 1,800 officers, most of whom are currently working as personal staff of ministers.

In a Cabinet note, cleared by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, the Department of Personnel and Training has suggested abolishing 10,503 posts of lower and upper division clerks in the Central Secretariat.

The …