Chief Minister Harish Rawat has ordered a halt for the time being on foreign trips by government officials and Cabinet Ministers. Addressing the media here on Monday, the CM said that he had also ordered satellite and manual mapping of constructions made along gorges and mountain streams to mark the homes vulnerable to disaster especially during the rainy season.
Rawat said that of the recent incidents of disaster in different parts of Uttarakhand, he had pinpointed at least six incidents which were caused due to gorges being blocked by unplanned constructions.
The State is trying to revive the traditional system of constructing outlets for rainwater near the source of mountain streams through MNREGA. Regarding the recent direction of the Central Government for completing digitalisation of the national food security scheme to benefit from the National Food Security Act, he said that the State was already moving in this direction but it would have been better if the Central Government had informed the State about this requirement which has not been mentioned in the Act. The CM said that steps are being taken to strengthen the Vigilance department which has been asked to review all complaints received in recent years, apart from marking positions that enable the position holder to accord favours so that self auditing system can be introduced for such positions.
“I have also ordered a stop on foreign tours by ministers and bureaucrats, while those wanting to go on study tours will first have to explain how these will benefit the State. To reverse the downward trend in education, we have decided that a teacher seeking transfer from his or her first posting will be considered a refusal of the teacher to work at the post. Only those illnesses which are in the departmental criteria will be accepted as grounds for teachers on leave while leave for other ailments will be treated as leave without pay,” he said. Regarding encroachments along rivers, the CM said that encroachment is a social and law and order problem.
To resolve this problem, the State has asked those constructing high rise buildings in Dehradun to also construct low cost housing. There is need to work under a comprehensive urban development policy, the Chief Minister said.