Friday 08 March 2024 | Gajendra Singh Negi | DEHRADUN
Spoilsport
Even as chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has plunged headlong into the poll mode, canvassing for votes across length and breadth of the Himalayan state, some leaders of the saffron party are often leaving him red-faced. In the latest incident, fuming over a firm being ignored in a tender process of legacy waste in Dehradun, the Salt MLA Mahesh Jeena barged into the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun office and gave the young commissioner a mouthful. The lawmaker’s alleged expletives hurled on officers prompted the civic body’s staff members to go on an indefinite strike in protest. The mighty IAS association has also registered its strong protest against the MLA’s misbehaviour, prodding a miffed CM to set up an inquiry. As if that were not enough, the discomfiture of BJP and CM deepened when an RTI query cornered the cabinet minister Ganesh Joshi on his assets being found to be disproportionate to his income. The revelations stimulated the laid-back opposition Congress into the battle mode, now baying for the blood of beleaguered Joshi.
Dhami’s ace
Close on the heels of the passage of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) bill by the Uttarakhand Assembly, the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has conjured up another political masterstroke in the form of the Uttarakhand public and private property damage recovery ordinance-2024. The ordinance will give power to the administration to recover the loss caused to the government and private properties in the course of any riot or unrest from the perpetrators of the violence. Under the new law, the rioters will also have to shell out the expenses to be incurred by police and administration in the course of controlling the riots. The young CM’s camp followers aver that the string of bold decisions like enactment of a stringent anti- copying act, demolishing illegal majars, granting 30 per cent reservation to the women of the State in government jobs, UCC bill, granting ownership rights to those residing in Nazul lands and the proposed damage recovery ordinance have helped him surge ahead of other leaders in the State party which includes as many as six former CMs.
Good riddance?
The rejection of the claim of the provisional State capital Dehradun for a place in the list of the cities II under the Smart City project has come as a shock for those engaged in the cash-rich project. Dehradun city not figuring in the second phase of the project means that the tenure of the Dehradun Smart City Limited will come to an end soon. However, intriguingly enough, this setback is being dubbed as a blessing in disguise by many denizens of Dehradun. They point out that the project has brought more pains than relief to the city and the much-trumpeted promise of making Dehradun a smart city has fizzled out on the ground. The locals argue that the State government and Municipal Corporation of Dehradun should devise a practical plan to make the city decongested, clean and green without acting on imported ideas such as smart city projects to make the life of the residents comfortable.
