Friday, 03 March 2023 | Gajendra Singh Negi
Interview relief
After enacting a stringent law in an attempt to prevent examination related malpractices and an open loot of government jobs by the recruitment mafia, young chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has come up with yet another bold decision of dispensing away with the system of interviews in the recruitment process of group C posts in Uttarakhand. This decision is bound to give some relief to the unemployed, most of whom view interviews with suspicion and term them a strong tool in the hand of the corrupt to screen out the deserving candidates for their favoured ones. Though the CM is taking a slew of measures to win the confidence of the youngsters who were deeply agitated on the use of brute force by the police on their protest in Dehradun on February 9 and the events that unfolded in its aftermath, he should understand that the faith in the system can be restored only by ensuring exemplary punishment to the culprits of the paper leak cases. He should also bring a major change in the selection process of the recruitment agencies and make the appointments there free from the political bias.
Harish, Harak & Haridwar
Though the battle of the parliamentary elections 2024 is yet to catch the fancy of the general public the battle lines in the opposition Congress over the prestigious Haridwar seat are already drawn. Harish Rawat and Harak Singh Rawat, two of the tallest leaders of the grand old party have already thrown their hats in the ring for the party’s ticket from Haridwar. It is natural for Harish Rawat who probably has made up his mind to enter the last battle of his chequered political career spanning more than 50 years, to set his eyes on the Haridwar seat which has sent him to parliament in the year 2009 and eventually to the union cabinet. His daughter too is a member of legislative assembly from Haridwar rural constituency and it is an open secret that he wanted to contest from this parliamentary seat in 2019 as well but the party sent him to Nainital where he lost at the hustings. However the assertion of Harak Singh on Haridwar is interesting since he takes pride in calling himself Sher- e- Garhwal. The sceptics are of the view that as an astute politician he is, Harak wants to create a pressure on the party by staking claim on Haridwar so that it may offer him or his daughter in law the ticket from the Garhwal Lok Sabha seat.
Heavyweight babu
In his second stint as the chief minister of the Himalayan State, Pushkar Singh Dhami has shown a special affinity towards a handful of babus and has kept many others high and dry when it comes to distribution of responsibilities. One such officer in whose abilities the CM appears to have an unflinching faith has become so much loaded with key assignments that many in babudom have become envious of him. This officer who was promoted to the elite cadre of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) last year has been bestowed with important assignments in education, information department and the much- sought- after position of vice chairman of the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA). It remains to be seen how this hardworking, soft spoken officer fulfills the high hopes the CM has for his abilities.
