Friday, 27 August 2021 | Gajendra Singh Negi
Flop show
The district administration and the health department of the provisional state capital landed with egg on their face when the recent and much hyped mega vaccination drive against Covid-19 failed miserably. The authorities had boasted that one lakh people would be vaccinated in one day and had invited the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and health minister Dhan Singh Rawat to inaugurate the one day mega campaign of vaccination in Dehradun. Since the monsoon session of the Uttarakhand assembly was slated to start on the day it was decided that the campaign would be launched from a government primary school located in the vicinity of the assembly building. The campaign was launched with much fanfare with the media team of CM doing its best to publicise the event. However as the day passed tension started gripping the officials and by the end of the day only 28000 beneficiaries were vaccinated. When compared with the unique feat of vaccinating the entire 18 plus population by the districts of Bageshwar and Rudraprayag, the failure of the mega vaccination drive in Dehradun is even more glaring. The authorities in Dehradun should now change their working plan and concentrate on vaccinating targeted groups and localities in order to achieve the desired goal.
Miffed Minister
A very senior and seasoned campaigner of the saffron party in its many political battles of the past in the Kumaon region is said to be uncomfortable with the recent developments in the government and the department headed by him. This leader who had to swallow a humble pie when his strong claim for a berth in cabinet was steadfastly ignored by TSR I during his tenure of four years and was made a minister by TSR II was hoping that like other ministers the new CM would add one or two plum assignments in his portfolio which at present has only two departments but his aspiration remained unfulfilled. To add to his discomfiture a Babu with whom he had a sore relationship when the officer was DM of a district for whom he is the Minister in-charge has been shifted in his department.
Room Rankle
A PRO of the CM Pushkar Singh Dhami was flabbergasted when he found that his nameplate had been removed from the room allotted to him in the section reserved for the CM and his staff in the Vidhan Sabha. On inquiry he was told that the nameplate has been removed on the orders of a senior Babu holding a powerful position in the CM’s office. This officer reportedly wanted a separate space for himself during the monsoon session of Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha and for it he usurped the room of the poor PRO. Incidentally in the recent work division this PRO of CM having a background of RSS was allotted the room in Vidhan Sabha which was to function as his office.
