Unceremonious exit of District Magistrate Akshat Gupta and SSP Vimmi Sachdeva was far from a surprise for the people of Nainital district. It was rather due, given the fact that Ramnagar had witnessed two unsavoury incidents loaded with disturbing proportions in a span of six months.
It may that be recalled that in the first case, communal tension erupted in the Ramnagar area in March last just ahead of the lok Sabha polls, when pictures with some objectionable contents were uploaded by a person on the Facebook. Though the local administration and the police concerned managed to restore normalcy in due course of time it seemed the Nainital district administration did not learn lessons from it.
It was not on its guard as much as it should have been in view of Ramnagar remaining mercurial, both socially and politically.
Things flared up again as a student leader associated with Congress-backed NSUI attempted self-immolation a few days back.
The situations were not things seriously by the law-enforcing agencies when there was time to stop. In March, when the communal tension was increasing, the administration and police took things lightly, though they were provided with inputs that tension was brewing around posting objectionable pictures through Facebook.
The same happened when they were beforehand informed of the agitating students possibly going for self-immolation. But neither the administration nor the police took the warning in the right spirit as the subsequent incident proved. Rather, they took it lightly, as the student leaders here alleged.
It is worthy to mention that Chief Minister Harish Rawat soon after assuming charge of the State Government about a little over six months ago, said that he did not believe in reshuffling administration only for the sake of reshuffling. Viewed in this light, the administrative reshuffle in Nainital district seemed to be a compulsion for the State Government.