Two days after the bureaucratic reshuffle was held, Haridwar District Magistrate Harbans Singh Chugh wrote to Chief Secretary Shatrughan Singh on Friday asking the latter to relieve him of the responsibility. 'The Pioneer' tried to contact the CS, but his mobile phone was busy. Even DM Chugh did not confirm this but sources have confirmed the report.
Sources further said that the Chief Secretary convened a meeting on Friday with DMs through video-conferencing to review the preparations for the President's visit. As the President is scheduled to visit Haridwar on September 29 to witness Ganga Aarti, the CS is understood to have asked the DM to arrange vehicles. But as he pleaded his inability to comply with the instructions, the CS is supposed to have given him a dressing down. Subsequently, the DM gave another video-conferencing held on Friday evening a slip.
Another story is being told that the highly placed bureaucrat was running angry with the DM. It is being alleged that the DM was instructed by the bureaucrat working from the Secretariat to facilitate a builder following which the DM facilitated him. later, the builder came to the Secretariat and said that the DM had helped him to have his plan approved in lieu of a price. This infuriated the bureaucrat, sources said.
The State Government refrained from transferring some officers based in the districts in view of the upcoming Presidential visit to Uttarakhand. Sources say that the DMs would be transferred once the President's visit is over. The DM who expressed his desire to resign to the CS might have done so knowing that his transfer is imminent, sources say.