Sweet revenge
It is a common belief that the resourceful officers tweak the system to their advantage. And this has been reinforced through the recent appointment of controversial Sumer Singh Yadav as managing director of Jodhpur power distribution company by BJP ruled Rajasthan Government. Yadav stoked many a controversy during his event-packed tenure as MD of Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited. Deemed as the‘man Friday’ of the then CM Harish Rawat, he was given two extensions during the Rawat led Congress regime. However, Yadav had to quit after he got embroiled in corruption charges in 2016. The opposition BJP at the time was at its voluble best, battering the Babu with a string of graft charges. The saffron camp even went to the extent of demanding a CBI inquiry into the ‘dubious deals’ struck by him while heading UPCl. BJP leader Vinay Goyal even released a sting video which purportedly showed Yadav taking a bribe of Rs five lakh. The charges were myriad, including illegally drawing pension from Haryana while taking full salary from UPCl. Probes pending against him, one wonders how Vasundhara Raje Government has appointed the controversial officer without consulting or caring to take NOC from Uttarakhand. Tongue wagging, it is said Yadav greased palms to grab the prime post in Jodhpur DISCOM.
Therapeutic DehradunIJ
Dehradun seems to possess magical power to help a sick soul enough to spring into spirited action. Some 400-odd teachers who were spared the ordeal of serving in the remote mountainous locations by their transfer to the ‘healing’ city on the ground of their supposed illness during the Harish Rawat-helmed regime are now doing sit-ins outside the official residence of education minister Arvind Pandey when the city is reeling under the searing summer heat. Their demand is simple. The present Government which unjustly revoked their transfer must roll it back to enable them recuperate under the invigorating climate of the blessed city. Now, it is for the government to put its seal on the ‘recuperative power’ of Dehradun by falling in line.
High- stake Tharali
The battle of Tharali promising to be an edge of the seat thriller, the ruling BJP has taken things in the right earnest. The political corridors are now abuzz with the story of the saffron top guns in Delhi having commanded the state party mandarins to retain the seat by any means. It is clear that the saffron brass has had its focus on the crucial 2019 general election. The grand battle less than a year away, they can hardly afford to lose the by-poll. Taking things in the right spirit, the State Government and the state party brass have plunged headlong into helping the top bosses with another bout of triumphalism. However, Congress is not taking things lying down.
It has let loose a battery of its leaders to give the saffronites a run for their money. The by-poll battle is indeed a high- stake one for both CM T S Rawat and state party chief Ajay Bhatt. A drubbing would charge their detractors within the party into a vociferous clamour for a re-jig.