Uthouna & Fawa
After being seen in the sting CD as out to do horse-trading to buy back some of the rebels, former Chief Minister Harish Rawat is now allegedly raining his fury down on one of his close confidantes at Bijapur guest house. The hapless associate of Rawat is supposed to have involved the ex-CM in the ‘deal’ after he himself had swallowed the bait dangled by those intent on ‘exposing’ Rawat. Since the day the sting CD was out, he has remained at the receiving end of the blows raining down on him. The fury seems inexhaustible. The more the ‘culprit’ is beaten the fiercer turns the fury. And it results in blows and more blows. It reminded the word Uthauna (which is being used in Bihar and it means the person will deliver particular thing to a particular person on daily basis). Another word is Fawa, which means the person will give such thing extra as well. In this case he is allegedly beating as Uthauna and giving extra punch to him as Fawa as well.However, beating him black and blue would not absolve Rawat of his involvement in the ‘deal’. After the CD came out he consistently denied his involvement. But after CBI took it up he changed tracks and started saying that he just had kidded with the ‘middleman’. But would such explanation cut ice with CBIIJ Does anybody use chopper for kiddingIJ
Burden of Generosity
The State Government has been incurring huge loss due to its ‘generosity’ to its officers regarding the use of cars. long back, much before Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh, the rate was fixed at Rs 500 per month as per an UP Act, an amount to be paid by each of the officers to the government on account of the cars he uses.
Since then the prices of petrol and diesel have shot up to Rs 67.50 and Rs 51 per litre respectively. Given the conditions of the vehicles the government hires, the mileage is hardly 10 kms per litre.
It means that the officers can use their vehicles up to 100 kms per month for personal use. However, in most cases, the officers travel at least 500 kms per month.
This means that the state exchequer has been bearing a burden of Rs 2000 per month or Rs 24,000 per annum for each of such officers. Interestingly, the state government has hired hundreds of taxis for official use and it pays Rs 12 per km in the least.
It means that one officer is making dent of Rs 4800 per month to the exchequer. Things regarding those who are working in the secretariat are even more interesting. They have been enjoying nearly five vehicles. One of them they get from the secretariat and the others they manage from the departments. The officers have reasons to defend themselves too. They cite the woefully meager amount of Rs 200 per month given to the officers in districts for hospitality.
They say the amount does not suffice even to offer a cup of tea to the visitors. When things are to be rationalized all such anomalies existing in the government rules must be considered in one sweep, they say.