Friday, 01 April 2022 | Gajendra Singh Negi | Dehradun
CR Worry
Perturbed by his bitter experiences of the past in dealing with the Babus, the heavyweight minister Satpal Maharaj has taken up the gauntlet on behalf of all the ministers on the issue of CR of the secretaries. He wants that in order to rein in the unbridled bureaucracy and make the system more dynamic the Ministers should be given the authority to make entries in the CR of the secretaries of their departments. Since Maharaj’s assertion touched the raw nerve of all the ministers, everyone has lined up behind him in demanding the system which is in practice in many states. As of now the all important CR of the secretaries are written by their immediate bosses in the bureaucracy and after that it is brought before the chief secretary and the CM making the ministers mere spectators in the whole process. The ball is now in the court of CM Pushkar Singh Dhami who is faced with a situation where accepting the demand of ministers would surely erode his authority while rejecting it would invite dissent in his team. In such a situation the tried and tested option of maintaining the status quo by setting up a committee could be the preferred line of action for him.
Congress’s Crisis
Intense war of supremacy among the warring factions has ensured that for the first time in the history of Uttarakhand the opposition remained headless during an entire assembly session. After the severe drubbing the Congress party received at the hustings in the recently held assembly elections the Congress leaders are now washing the dirty linen in public and the warring factions have made the post of Leader of Opposition (LoP) as an issue of prestige. In the contention for the position in the decimated Congress side are veterans Pritam Singh and Yashpal Arya and aspirants like Rajendra Bhandari, Harish Dhami and Manoj Tiwari. After the Congress legislature party failed to reach a consensus on its leader in presence of central emissaries the party decided to leave the issue on the wisdom of the party high command. Weakened by a string of electoral reversals in different parts of the country the central leadership of the party appears not in favour of foisting its choice on LoP which is further lingering on the issue. One wonders the time the faction-ridden party had taken to elect its leader had the people of Uttarakhand given it a chance to form the government in the state.
Sulking Minister
A Minister of the newly sworn in Cabinet of Pushkar Singh Dhami cabinet is very annoyed at downgrading of his seniority in the cabinet and distribution of portfolios by the CM. This minister of Congress party background got irked during the swearing in ceremony when some of the ministers junior to him took oath ahead of him. It is learnt that the CM Dhami’s camp has taken a serious note of this minister’s Delhi visit after the election results in the state were declared and his lobbying for the coveted post of CM of the state. This abhorrence was manifested when this minister was not given departments in accordance with his stature. He was given only one important portfolio but another plum department which is normally associated with it was kept by CM himself.
