Go and feel village
Heart of India beating in the villages a lan Mahatma Gandhi, Uttarakhand government has made it mandatory for the all the senior administrative officers from the principal secretaries to the under-secretaries to spend at least two days in the villages. The Chief Minister himself is leading the show, making it a point to spend a few days in the rural Uttarakhnad. The intention is clear-the officers running the state must come out of the bureaucratic ivory tower to have a direct taste of the heat and dust of the village life. It is not that the senior officers do not visit villages. But what happens is that they are used to intimating the concerned district magistrates in advance and consequently, the administration swings into action to cover the festering scars of the villages so that the secretaries feel that the villagers are living carefree idyllic life, thanks to their ‘painstaking’ efforts. Now, the question that begs answer is-would the villagers dare speak about the woes bedeviling their existence to the visiting secretaries in the presence of the district administration officers.
CS on edge
Things regarding the much-speculated extension of the term of the chief secretary Rakesh Sharma by six months hanging fire with DoPT conspicuously sitting on it, the spotlight is riveted on the chief minister. He can extend his term by three months using his discretionary power in case DoPT chooses to remain mum. But the question is whether he would go for the same. He has been maintaining a stony silence in the same manner DoPT has been doing. The Babus are tense as the headbabu is with DoPT and CM keeping all on the tenterhooks. However, things would be cleared by October 31.