Candid Notes

Hidden hint

By announcing that he would retire only after making Rahul Gandhi the PM of the country in the year 2024, Harish Rawat has made it loud and clear that he has made a resolution for one last hurrah to the chair of CM of Uttarakhand. Considering the changing mood of electorate of the Himalayan state in every assembly election since its creation and lack of leaders of his stature in the Congress, the wily leader knows it pretty well that grand old party has no option but to keep him at forefront if it really wants to make a serious bid for power in the assembly elections of 2022. By penning down his retirement plan on his FB wall that instantly became a topic of discussions in political circles, the old fox has killed two birds with one stone. Apart from making it apparent that he would remain politically active till his health would allow – for he has taken an objective to make RaGa, the PM- he has made it clear to his opponents both in Congress and BJP that he intends to lead Congress’s campaign for power in the state.

Role models?

The shocking revelation of 57 trainees of elite Indian Administrative Services (IAS) getting infected with Covid-19 at the prestigious Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) located in pristine hills of Mussoorie shows how callous the authorities of the academy were in dealing with the threat of dreaded disease. The fact that the trainees were on a trekking expedition to different locations in the hills of Garhwal further underlies the sloppy approach which could put lives of locals in the mountains at risk. A similar tale of carelessness was witnessed in Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA) when its authorities took budding officers of Indian Forest Services (IFS) to Europe tour in the last week of February this year when Covid-19 was at peak in these countries and had not made its presence felt in Uttarakhand and even in India. In fact the IFS trainees were the first Covid-19 patients of the state. These two events suggest that something is seriously wrong with the administrations of these institutes tasked to produce administrators for the country.

Welfare (?) board

Even as unfortunate death and injury to the construction workers in accidents like that occurred in the collapse of an under construction bridge near Rishikesh on All weather road continue to occur in different parts of the state the skeletons are tumbling out from the cupboard of the cash rich board meant for their welfare. After TSR yielded the stick by removing Harak Singh Rawat from post of chairman and his protégé from the position of secretary stories of money swindling and blatant nepotism in the board are emanating. It is learnt that an initial audit by the AG revealed that large scale appointments were made by the board without seeking necessary approval of the finance department. Not surprisingly many of those appointed were said to be serving at the homes of the minister, secretary and others. It is also coming to fore that large numbers of non eligible candidates were registered as construction labourers even as the majority of the labourers don’t even know about the existence of such a board which actually is engaging in welfare of high and mighty. 

Friday, 27 November 2020 | Gajendra Singh Negi | Dehradun