‘Deputation’ muddle
Two bureaucrats - an IFS and an IAS- who have been in Uttarakhand on deputation, have found themselves in an unenviable rut with Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Union Government finding things muddled.
The IFS, who is staying put here despite his deputation having ended on February 27, 2013, had written to the DoPT seeking an extension. Acting on it, DoPT nudged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their No -Objection Certificate (NoC). However, the foreign ministry denied having cleared his extension in 2013 in the first place. They sent a communiqué to the State’s chief secretary N Ravishankar instead.
The foreign ministry asked CS to account for his continuation in the State. He has been missing for the service since February 2013 as the ministry had not cleared his case for deputation in Uttarakhand. They warned that they would consider his two- year ‘absence’ as service break and slap monetary ‘punishment’ proportionate to the gravity of the case.
In the second instance, the IAS concerned who belongs to the UP cadre keeps spending sleepless nights over DoPT questioning his stay in Uttarakhand with the UP Government pleading ignorance of things. The matter has come into focus after the Uttarakhand Government requested DoPT to extend his term of deputation by two years. The question is-how he can stay in another State with the one he belongs to having not given the required go-ahead. Things have assumed another dimension with the officer being deemed close to 10, Janpath.
Chasing commission
Engineers of the Irrigation and PWD departments, which are responsible for constructing safety walls (pushta) and roads respectively, are now literally scratching their heads to conjure up extra one and half percent commission for their two bosses- a senior bureaucrat and a politician, who happens to belong to the CM’s charmed circle. The bureaucrat is charging one percent for himself with a note that half of it would lap up to the CM.
The question comes as to whether half of the half percent going to the politician would lap again to the CM, thus making it 0.75 percent for the CMIJ Things have been so long fixed- receiving a certain percentage from the contractors and giving a certain percentage to their boss sitting in the secretariat. The extra amount meant for the trio remaining elusive with the contractors remaining reluctant to cough up the extra bucks, the hapless engineers are now praying to Heaven to wriggle them out of the bind.
De-affiliation dilemma
The question is -why the colleges affiliated to Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University are unwilling to de-affiliate themselves from the Central University and to affiliate themselves to Sri Dev Suman University instead, thus flouting the Government order. Is it because of the gaudy tag that a Central University bears or some other reasons hidden beneath the surfaceIJ HNBGU was upgraded as a Central University around five years back. later, the Cabinet decided to de-affiliate all the existing colleges from it to get them affiliated to Sri Dev Suman University. However, the concerned colleges are stonewalling things. The reason is obvious.
The colleges would lose sheen once they are de-affiliated from HNBGU. Those running these institutions are convinced that the parents would be disinclined to enroll their wards in them once they cease to flaunt their affiliation to the Central University. However, the reason they are blurting is that the cumbersome de-affiliation procedures are delaying things. The point does not seem to stand reason, as earlier DIT, IMS, Himalyan Institute of Hospital & Trust (HIHT) and many others underwent the same process without much of a glitch.
Are we to think that the State Government and the colleges concerned have vested interests in maintaining the status quo-to mutually milk the hapless parents who are eager to have their wards taught in a Central UniversityIJ The question is-who would bell the cat and move things to their logical conclusion with the Government itself seemingly having a finger in the pieIJ