One-month-long ambiguity about incumbent Chief Secretary Rakesh Sharma would get extenion or not, ended with reappointment of Chief Secretary Rakesh Sharma for three months as Chief Secretary. Chief Minister Harish Rawat had given enough hint while talking to the media after Cabinet meeting, that now the State would assert its authority on the issue. A letter for three months’ extension to Chief Secretary Rakesh Sharma, who was supposed to retire on October 31, was sent to the DoPT on September 26 but the proposal has neither been accepted nor rejected.
With this decision one thing is clear that State Government does not want to disturb the ongoing reconstruction work at Kedarnath and other disaster-affected areas.
Although the State Government was presuming that he (Sharma) would get the clearance from the DoPT, the Government did not receive any communiqué till Saturday. The confusion deepened when Rawat said that the State Government would use its own powers in this regard.
Now the question is why Rawat, who is having control on the pulse of the people and keeps meeting with people since morning till late night, was very much keen to give extension to Rakesh SharmaIJ
As Sharma was supposed to retire by October 31 there was a rumour in the air that the DoPT has given its assurance so that he would get three months’ extension. Sources said that the Chief Minister had been assured that the DoPT would give extension for three months to Sharma so he did not act on time.
When the Government did not receive any letter from the DoPT till October 30 the suspense got thicker. Meanwhile, the Cabinet meeting, which was called ahead of upcoming Vidhan Sabha session at Gairsain at the Secretariat, began and the Chief Minister said that “you (media) should wait till evening because we would receive the letter by 5 pm.” Coming out after the Cabinet meeting at 5 pm, Rawat said that now the State Government “is going to use its own power on it.”
The Chief Minister held a marathon meeting with Advocate General UK Uniyal, Principal Secretary law and Principal Secretary Personnel Radha Raturi at the Secretariat and at Bijapur Guest House till late evening. Sources said that Rawat is adamant to give him three months’ extension. The question being raised was the DoPT, which had been sitting mum on the file approve extension, accept this extensionIJ
The impression was the DoPT, which had already approved extension of Chief Secretary of four States i.e. Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Karnataka, will approve this extension too. However, the DoPT had rejected the extension of UP Chief Secretary’s extension.