A scheming babu settling scores
A scheming bureaucrat holding a high position has proved that the Babus hardly forget and forgive. What happened is that he is pulling strings from behind the screen to bring about a 1984-batch IAS officer who has remained conspicuous by his absence from Uttarakhand for about two decades to scuttle the prospects of an officer, poised to become the top bureaucrat, given his seniority. This is because the officer who is at the receiving end of the scheme had shown audacity to defy his instruction some six years ago. It is learnt that the senior Babu had asked the officer to clear the files of the missing bureaucrat so as to clear decks for the legalisation of his service. But the subordinate officer had refused to give in, insisting that it was unethical to help reinstatement of the bureaucrat staying away from the State for years. If the plan of the scheming Babu succeeds the one he is propping up at the expense of the defiant officer would adorn the top post in the echelons of bureaucracy because of his seniority. Things seem to be moving in this direction after the State Government sanctioned his one day’s salary, thus legitimising his service, regardless of his being absent from the State for around twenty years. If this happens the scheming top bureaucrat would have the last laugh and the upright IAS would be made to understand that it is wiser to trash ethics to humor the boss.
Top cop under glare
The State’s top cop seems to be now in a pitiable condition with the officers defying orders with impunity. For instance, an IPS officer who was recently transferred from a district of Kumaon division has chosen to stay away from the new post by going on leave. The leave is said to have been sanctioned by a DIG based in Kumaon.
This act of sanctioning leave is an affront against the police manual as none can take leave thus before reporting for his newly assigned duty. Things are proving trying for the state’s top cop with police officers in increasing number throwing down gauntlet, challenging his authority while flaunting their proximity to the high and mighty. It is to be seen how
the top cop, deemed as an upright person, strongly disinclined to buckle under pressure, would wriggle out of the predicament things have placed him. He must coerce the defiant in their right proportions to assert his authority. However, things are not rosy for him as those calling the shots in the State would not allow him to breathe easy. Those close to the top cop say that he has adopted right now a wait and watch policy. He would do something at the right time to stop the rot of indiscipline from eating its way deep into the police force, they say. Things turning interesting, the glare remains focused on him.