Once bitten, twice shy
Appeasement spree continuing in full swing ahead of the election, the Uttarakhand government declared government holidays on two occasions- Karva Chouth and Chhath, following each other in a few days. But interestingly, there was a difference between the two. While in the case of the former, it included treasury and banks they were exempted in the case of the latter. There is a reason. Taking a strong note of the state government declaring holiday in the banks and the financial institutions, the Reserve Bank of India shot off a sternly worded letter to the secretary of the department concerned, asking it to explain things. Once bitten, twice shy, the state government refrained from doing the same in case of the holiday announced on the occasion of Chhath festival. What happened is that even in the case of the public holiday on the occasion of Karva Chouth, the state government had not initially included the treasury and the banks. later, buckling under pressure from the employees of the treasury and the banks- a pampered lot by all means- the government made the secretary to issue a revised notification to clear decks for their closure too. The RBI seems justified in asking the secretary concerned to account for the notification issued to declare holiday in the financial institutions without taking it into confidence. The secretary concerned was heard shrugging off the responsibility while customarily passing the buck to the chief minister. It seems the political establishment has taken the right lesson as it desisted from bungling in case of the gazetted holiday on the occasion of Chhath festival.
Undernourished secretariatIJ
Do those working in the state secretariat belong to the category of the poor, bereft of nutritious foodIJ This question arises after an Indira Amma Canteen became functional there at the behest of the state government. It follows logic that things are so, going by the announcement of the chief minister a year ago when the first of such canteens came up at Clock Tower. He said that it was meant to provide nutritious meals at cheap rates for those who live from hand to mouth. However, by the same logic, the canteen at the secretariat should be thrown open to all the poor, not just the employees there. But things are not so. The outsiders must obtain passes to get access to the cheap yet nutritious food, a thing that is almost impossible to get, given the common people’s experiences.