A five-day winter session of the Uttarakhand Assembly, which has been called by the Governor to pass the Supplementary Budget, is slated to begin on November 24.
The session might prove embarrassing for the Treasury bench. Several questions are lined up for the question hour and the answers are yet to be prepared because of the ongoing secretariat employees’ strike. If the stir drags as the session begins the Opposition would use it to the hilt to tear into the State Government, slamming it for bungling with the stir.
Talking to The Pioneer, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Indira Hridayesh acknowledged the fact the stir has landed the Government in a soup. True, the answers to the questions that are scheduled to be raised during the question hour are yet to be prepared. The same is the case with the answers to be provided to the members in black and white. She said she has appealed to the agitating employees to withdraw the strike and resume duty immediately so as to enable the State Government to pass the Supplementary Budget.
She said that there are instances of several employees having become deputy secretary while their colleagues are still doing clerical jobs in Uttar Pradesh. “The strike is for self-aggrandisement of a section of the employees at the expense of the interests of the State and the nation,” she added.
Following the High Court order, we have imposed no- work no -pay norms in the State, the minister said.
She hoped that they would return to their work, realizing the gravity of the situation. The Cabinet has decided to keep the secretariat functioning six days a week, keeping in view the larger interests of the State, in general and the districts, in particular. last year’s disaster struck the State a crippling blow. “We are duty-bound to restore connectivity in the upcoming 90 days,” she said.
She further said that the Government has already given leave on the second Saturday. “We all know that how the files keep on gathering dust, stuck as they are in the serpentine alleys of secretarial nonchalance. It takes almost two months for a file to be cleared. Even the Cabinet Ministers face the same plight. For this, we have to send our personal staff to chase the files. Even then things take over a month to get cleared,” she said.
As far as zero hour, when the Opposition disrupts the House’s proceedings our secretary or additional secretary would procure information directly from the districts. “However, we know how to tackle the House in such situations. So the ongoing strike would not affect the House proceedings. “However, we appeal to them again to resume work so that the State can plunge itself in full to rebuild the State infrastructure. If we fail to restore roads we would not get tourists next year.
“We know that the tourist inflow is still not as good as is expected. We are yet to tide over the aftermath of the disaster. We must ensure that the tourists come in good numbers. If that happens the State would be rid of the disaster-stigma. Tourism is the fulcrum upon which our State’s economy is founded,” the minister said.
A day after the Uttarakhand High Court directed the State Government to ensure an early end to the ongoing strike of the secretariat employees, the Chief Minister Harish Rawat appealed to the employees to return to work in the public interest.
It would be pertinent to mention here that the secretariat employees have been on an indefinite strike since November 12- a day after the State Cabinet decided to keep the secretariat open for six days in a week and to introduce and make mandatory biometric attendance.