Catch for Kishore
After a long while spent in dilly-dallying, chief minister Harish Rawat seems to have decided a thing, a decision that is likely to bring home the point that his party’s electoral interests would gain precedence over his strong inclination to keep its alliance with Progressive Democratic Front intact. CM extensively touring Tehri along with the State Congress chief Kishore Upadhyay has nudged the observers conclude that the latter would try his electoral luck from Tehri Assembly constituency for Election 2017. There is, however, a catch. In the 2012 election, Upadhyay was defeated by Dinesh Dhanai who contested from the seat as an Independent candidate. He was later inducted in the State cabinet. Dhanai has been nurturing the constituency well. Several schemes, including Tehri Festival, to boost tourism are being implemented, resulting in the local youths getting employment. Observers say it would not be easy to foist Upadhyay in view of the feel good factor prevailing among the electorate. Besides, Congress must harp on development, something that would cut into the developmental claim of Congress’s ally. In case Upadhyay decides to toss his hat in the ring he must flaunt something new to overwhelm the electorate in his favour, a proposition that many of the party men are sceptical about, given his not-so-lustrous credibility.
Grand Fiasco
Things have ended in a fiasco as expected ahead of the grand electoral battle 2017. The State Government kept stumbling in executing its decision to start six-day week for the employees of the Secretariat. Then it did a volte- face and resumed the earlier five –day a week, a decision that would definitely please the Secretariat employees who are in a position to call the shots, given the fact that the State Government employees consist of nearly 20 percent of the State’s electorate. The story is interesting. The employees going into a sulk- mode in the wake of the decision made the State Government decide to proffer relief. Second and last Saturdays of a month were included as day-offs for them in tune with the norm prevailing in the district administration. However, things got merrier for the Secretariat employees as the State Government backtracked and went into the old groove of five-day week. Ravidas Jayanti on February 22 seemed to have precipitated things. As it was not a gazetted holiday a senior Babu visited the Secretariat to find it deserted. He was told that Government had declared it a holiday in sync with the fact that it is a holiday for the employees of the district administration. The State cabinet lost no time and brought things back into the old groove, a u-turn that would, on one hand, gladden the long grudging souls working in the Secretariat and, on the other, deal a blow to the Government’s ‘do it now’ mission. Observers say it was a compulsion. leaving the mighty Secretariat employees who ‘embody’ the summit of work ethics sulky would have proved disastrous for the ruling party for the fast-approaching election. However, there is another drift to the sordid story of Governmental genuflection before the muscle- flexing of the employees. Things did not improve a tad as far as performance of the Secretariat employees is concerned during the time when six-day week was in force. Files kept on gathering dust with the workers trashing orders and making merry. Observers sound sceptic. They say things would never change for the better, irrespective of the change in the face of the party ruling the State. They seem to be justified. Are they notIJ