Babus’ predicament
The State Government postponing the State Assembly session slated in August at the IIT college at Gairsain to November has landed the Chamoli district administration in the dock. The officials procured furniture aside from PBX instruments required for the session in bulks. But now with the session being deferred for a few months, the district officials, tasked to keep them in good order, are literally scratching their heads. They know that the MlAs would raise tantrums in case the goods purchased for them are found in bad order when the session would finally sit. Keeping them in the college for months is impossible, given its status as a institute of immense academic import. “We are in a terrible predicament the like of which we have never encountered in our service career. All hell would be let loose if they are not found in their freshness. But where to put them for months while ensuring that the mercurial MlAs do not find anything amissIJ” asked a gloomy faced Babu.
Haughty IASs, hapless secretary
The Chief Minister fawning on a Babu who is not an IAS cadre has left him vulnerable to the scheming IASs after he was made secretary of a department. As ill luck would have it, when he convenes a meeting, the hierarchy-conscious, conceited IASs, holding posts of assistant secretaries, give them slips. Embarrassed, the secretary fixes another date, hoping that the Babus would turn up, shedding snobbery for the sake of official decorum. However, the same keeps continuing with the haughty IASs sticking to their guns of steering clear of any meeting convened by the non-IAS secretary. The seemingly never-ending tussle has left the junior rank officers like deputy secretary, under- ecretary and section officers in dire straits. They perforce attend meetings called by the secretary repeatedly to end the logjam. They are now making a beeline before their seniors, beseeching them to ensure they are freed from the clutches of the hapless secretary. An IAS confided that the ice is unlikely to thaw, given the convention that the post of the secretary is the exclusive preserve of the IAS cadre officers. There are two options left, he said. Either the secretary himself must ask to be relieved of the post he does not deserve or, in case he refuses, he must convene meetings sans his IAS subordinates, he boasted triumphantly.