Ordinance Ordeal
Amid onslaught from both within the BJP and opposition, the State Government was forced to bring an Ordinance to save the slum dwellers from the High Court (HC) triggered demolition drive in Dehradun. In the process, the Government trashed an Act duly passed by the State Assembly during the Harish Rawat regime in the year 2016, which had provisions for resettlement of slums. Interestingly the draft of the Ordinance passed by the State Cabinet on July 25 also talks about resettlement of the slums as mentioned in the act of 2016. All the new Ordinance does is to buy a time period of three years for resettlement of slums from the HC. Technicalities apart, it is clearly evident that the BJP Government brought the ordinance in a move to take the credit of saving the slums. It is no wonder that the Congress had also played to the gallery by bringing in a hurriedly drafted and impractical Act on slums at fag end of its tenure. It would be interestingly to see the response of court on this political brinkmanship on slums but going by the reaction of most of the slum dwellers, it is clear that they would strongly resist any move to shift them to the Government made accommodations. With support of politicians of all hues, it is imperative that they would not be willing to leave the comfort of their 150- 200 sq yard houses and shift to clumsy flats.
Rejuvenating Rispana
Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat’s passion to rejuvenate once pristine and perennial Rispana River passing through the heart of Dehradun city is well known. As part of the save Rispana campaign a massive plantation drive was undertaken from the origin of the River to its confluence with Bindal River on July 22. TSR would be first person to understand that mere plantation drive would not serve the purpose to revive a moribund River. The tale of Rispana is similar to hundreds of such rivers across the country which paid price for the horrible civic management system which treats rivers as garbage and sewer disposal sites while conveniently keeping eyes closed on rampant and shameless encroachment of catchment areas. One doesn’t need to be River Expert to understand that tapping the drains getting emptied into the river and freeing its catchment areas are the doctor ordered prescription for the bane. Planting trees without putting any mechanism to ensure their safety and well being and spraying enzymes could be excellent tools to propagate the exalted message of ‘Rispana Rejuvenation’ but sadly they go nowhere to fulfil the real objective.
Reshuffle raison d'être
The recent reshuffle in responsibilities of many administrative services officers would not only bring in more order in the functioning of many departments of the Himalayan State but also had removed frown from the faces of some Ministers. It was an open secret in the corridors of power in Dehradun that many Ministers were not happy with the style of functioning of the babus holding charge of the departments assigned to them. The lack of coordination between the political and administrative heads was affecting the smooth functioning of many important departments. With elections of urban local bodies round the corner and crucial general elections not too far away, the government went into an overhauling mode by effecting an extensive reshuffling in Babudom. Grievances over Babus redressed, the message that it is time to perform now is also obvious to the ministers.