Friday, 12 May 2023 | Gajendra Singh Negi
Haridwar haste
Even as the political parties and their key players are contemplating on the time to take a plunge for the parliamentary elections slated for next year, two former CMs Harish Rawat and Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank and maverick of Uttarakhand politics Harak Singh Rawat are already in the thick of things in the Haridwar parliamentary constituency. Astute politician that he is, Nishank is well aware of the anti-incumbency factor in the constituency he is planning to score a hat-trick of victories in the election of 2024.
To counter the anti- incumbency and the claims of leaders such as former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat and Madan Kaushik for the BJP ticket, Nishank is successfully trying to woo Panchayat level leaders in rural Haridwar to the fold of BJP. From the Congress camp, Harish and Harak are eager to throw their hats in the ring from Haridwar. While Harak has become a regular visitor in different programmes in the constituency, Harish Rawat is very active in the area. Sensing the pulse of rural hinterland, he took up the cudgels on the behalf of sugarcane farmers by demanding payment of their dues from Iqbalpur sugar mill. The septuagenarian politician’s endearing picture of taking an open bath in a hand-pump at the protest site has surely made his opponents sweat.
Movie magic
Top leaders of BJP in Uttarakhand, which included those holding coveted positions in the government and in the party organisation, queued up to watch the movie The Kerala Story which was screened at a mall in Doon recently. The screening of the movie and the audience were expected since PM Modi had raised the central theme of the movie during the course of his high-voltage election campaign in Karnataka.
The party insiders point out that diktat for watching the movie came from the high command and everyone in the disciplined party followed suit. It is learnt that one minister attended the movie show even though he was indisposed due to high fever. With talks of a cabinet reshuffle and expansion doing the rounds in the power corridors, the earnestness of this minister is understandable.
Setting task
Annoyed by nonchalance exhibited by the babus in visiting the districts allotted to them for monitoring the schemes and projects of the government, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has quashed the practice of secretary in-charge of the districts. As per the new arrangement, all the bureaucrats of the State administration from the rank of additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries, secretaries to the secretary in-charges would visit one district every month and stay the night there.
The State administration is also preparing a calendar according to which these officers would visit the districts. It is learnt that under the older system, only seven bureaucrats had submitted reports of their visits to the districts allotted to them this year which probably prompted the government to enforce the new arrangement on the babus.
