Chief Minister Harish Rawat may have hinted at taking some tough decisions in the larger public interests in the post-poll scenario, but as per the past record of the Himalayan state, the successive State Governments do not seem inclined to make the administrative machinery function in a proper order.
With the employees’ unions having made it a habit to take to the streets to get their demand fulfilled at the drop of their hats, the real challenge confronting the present dispensation is how to put an end to this disruptive culture of 'dharna -pradarshan' by way of protest.Staging stirs is a democratic right of the employees. Yet, the sit-ins are befalling the hill state on such a large scale that Uttarakhand has already earned the appellation of ‘a State of stirs’.
Whether it is part of the vote bank politics or otherwise, no Government in Uttarakhand seems inclined to stem the tide of disruption by creating an atmosphere conducive for its employees to work.The fact of the matter is that with the new academic session having already been started in schools, the State Government has not yet been able to issue even routine transfer orders involving teachers in basic education sector.
This results in the unfortunate scenario of many schools, particularly in the pains, having surplus teachers and some schools in the remote or hilly terrains stumbling in the absence of the minimum number of teachers.However, when asked about reshuffling of teaching staff in the basic education sector, Mantri Prasad Naithani, State School Education Minister, told The Pioneer that steps are being taken to strengthen the education system.
“We have not been able to issue transfer orders of teachers because of the ongoing election process. Now we would do that,” he added. Similarly, the health sector has remained in a poor shape, particularly in the remote areas of different hill districts, due to shortage of doctors. But nothing has been done so far to ensure proper health care system by deploying minimum health staff.
People of Uttarakhand have played a balancing act by reposing confidence in the present dispensation in the recently concluded Assembly by-polls and the rural body elections, after snubbing them hard in the general elections held earlier this summer.More so, unlike the previous year, the State Government is not facing Himalayan Tsunami that befell the hill State last year.So this is high time for the present State Government to act to end the long-continuing tradition of governmental somnolence.