Fury of IAS
‘I care a damn’ attitude of a senior lady IAS officer is making things complicated for the administration here. The Babus in the Himalayan state have already attained notoriety for not taking the elected representatives seriously. livid with anger, the Education Minister Arvind Pandey rang up the Chief Secretary in the midst of a meeting some days ago and asked him to shift her out of the department headed by the Minister himself. Pandey is just one of many who have run into the officer known for impertinence. Sometime back, a first- time BJP MlA got the taste when he went to her office for some work. The lawmaker recounted his story of humiliation to other legislators. They together met the Chief Minister and told him to ensure that such imperious bureaucrats are immediately reined in to stop them from running riot.
Tact, not Act
Trivendra Singh Rawat Government might pat itself on its back for rolling out a transparent transfer act for the State Government employees that is supposed to have finished off a thriving transfer’ posting industry in Uttarakhand. But some ruling party MlAs are not happy. They privately are blaming the new act for their woes. One such MlA from Pauri district, known for his candidness, admitted that the act has hamstrung the elected representatives while proving to be a boon for the bureaucrats. He dubbed it as impractical and said that the legislators cutting across the party lines share the same view. What he said is that tact counts more than act in transfers. According to him, it is they who face the public. What kind of an act it is when it has left for them no power to shunt an officerIJ he wondered.
Outsiders’ wings clipped
Recent reshuffle of the Ministers in charge of the districts by the TSR Government has not gone down well with the Ministers with Congress background. Though the so- called ‘ outsiders’ now in the saffron camp are keeping a straight face in public their supporters are resenting the wings of their mentors being clipped. There are as many as five Ministers- Satpal Maharaj, Yashpal Arya, Harak Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal and Rekha Arya-all with Congress roots. The reshuffle has lowered the stature of Satpal Maharaj and Yashpal Arya who earlier were in charges of two districts each. Post-reshuffle, they have just one each under their charge. On the other hand, the stature of Dhan Singh Rawat, a CM loyalist, has grown with two important districts being brought under him. The reward was expected, given his feat to snatch a victory in Tharali nearly from the jaws of defeat.