Booze contempt
The political future of Uttarakhand remaining mired in tangle of litigation, 12 out of 13 DMs of the state are facing contempt of court charges over the controversial Fl-2 policy. After the court nullified the Fl-2 policy and enforced stock to be maintain as per the previous rule applicable in the year 2014-15 to ensure steady availability of liquor in the markets, the 12 DMs failed to comply. This failure prodded the liquor manufacturers to move court which, on its part, has taken it up. The booze manufacturers say that the DMs have been sitting on the court order as a result of which the people are being forced to buy whatever is available in the markets, bereft of options. The only DM who has executed the court order is the one from Uttarkashi. He was in his previous stint the excise commissioner which is why he chose to put himself on the safer side of things. Contempt of court dangling over their heads, they have got a sort of relief from the court, saying they failed to procure the requisite certificates from the state government. As per the government rules regarding contempt of court cases, the state government bears the expenses incurred in such cases initially. But in case the ruling goes against the individual bureaucrats or officials embroiled in such cases the latter would have to bear the whole burden of the litigation expenses and also the amount of the penalties, if slapped, through deduction from their salaries. Observers are, however, piqued over the babus dillydallying vis-à-vis the court order even after the Harish Rawat dispensation which envisaged Fl-2 was dismissed.
Riddle of nameplates removed
Something serious happened during the time when Harish Rawat government was reinstated, albeit for a short period, as per the High Court order. The nameplate of the Governor was removed and replaced with that Harish Rawat with alacrity. Not just that, the nameplates of the advisors to the Governor, appointed by the Centre, were removed too. Sensing that things were happening at a baffling pace, the advisors stayed away from their offices, keeping their dignity intact. Even the Governor chose to remain ensconced in Rajbhawan in marked departure to his regular morning visits to the civil secretariat to monitor things since the President’s Rule was imposed. It is learnt from sources privy to the highest echelons of bureaucracy that neither the chief secretary nor the secretariat administration had issued any order for the removal of the nameplates. Now, the question is- at whose behest things happened. It is another matter altogether that the alacrity with which Harish Rawat and others assumed the charge of the government on the basis of the oral order of the High Court helped the Centre to get a stay from the Supreme Court on the High Court order that set aside the Presidential Proclamation and restored Rawat dispensation, citing the fact that the CM was convening cabinet meetings and clearing projects without waiting for the written court order to arrive. The question as to whose behest the nameplates of the Governor and his advisors were removed remains unanswered. There was little doubt that Harish Rawat had a committed bureaucracy which thrived thanks to its ability to act robot-like on the orders of… Things which are mired in murkiness must be cleared at the earliest to stop its repeat if such uncertainty befalls the state again, a possibility that can hardly be ruled out.