Chief Minister Harish Rawat may have succeeded in marginalising his political adversaries to fortify his position ever since he took charge as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, but his administrative abilities have failed to match his political acumen on several occasions.
Taking back the transfer order of Yogesh Mishra, Assistant Director, media centre, Haldwani to Champawat has further strengthened this assumption.
It is believed, as the officials concerned informed, Rawat was not happy with the role of Mishra in presenting his Government in the aftermath of the recent rape-cum-murder of the seven-year-old girl recently in Haldwani.
More so, the police lathi-charge on the media persons after the Chief Minister’s visit to the bereaved family members on Friday last had further upset the State Government with Mishra being accounted for the misrepresentation of the Government’s perspective in the light of the series of incidents.
These finally culminated in Mishra being transferred in the same capacity to Champwat. Sources said the CM had himself taken the decision to remove Mishra as Assistant Director of Haldwani.
However, on account of pressure from a senior Cabinet Minister, Mishra has been reinstated as Assistant Director, Haldwani.It is to be noted that the same senior Cabinet Minister was instrumental in bringing Mishra in the capacity of an Assistant Director of Haldwani media centre in 2013.
Prior to this assignment, Mishra was working in the same capacity in the Directorate of Information and Publicity, Dehradun, Uattarakhand.However, buckling under pressure from one of his senior Cabinet colleagues, Chief Minister had to revoke the transfer order ‘unwillingly’, alleged his adversaries.
Transfer is part of a routine administrative functioning of any Government to reposition itself on the public delivery front. But, in Uttarakhand, the much-talked about transfer issue seems to be more than that, becoming a hill versus plain battle running among the Government employees.
And, more importantly, when the employees are not happy with the transfer orders they do not hesitate to seek political intervention to get transfer in areas of their choice as has been witnessed on numerous occasions in the past.