Candid Notes

Friday, 15 July 2022 | Gajendra Singh Negi

Transfer tangle

A letter written by an officer who is widely believed to be calling the shots in the CM’s office in which an order is given to the head of the department concerned for transfer of three teachers has stirred a hornet’s nest in the Himalayan state. Though the letter ostensibly is written for transfer of the teachers who are suffering from serious diseases under rule 27 of the act, it has given enough ammunition to the opposition and the detractors of the CM to browbeat him. The naysayers of Dhami are pointing out that the letter and the order given in it is a clear infringement on the Uttarakhand Annual Transfer of Public Servants Act -2017 (Transfer Act) from the highest office of executive in the state. It is learnt that a powerful lobby of politicians and Babus is striving hard to make the Act redundant by incorporating changes in it. This lobby views the Act implemented with much fanfare by the government headed by Trivendra Singh Rawat in the year 2017 as a major hindrance in its hegemony.

Harish, Harak & Haridwar

Undeterred by successive electoral losses, setting up of disillusionment among the rank and file of the party and flight of leaders in search of greener pastures, the tallest leaders of Congress party are continuing to yield swords to cut their detractors within the party to size. In the latest instance of this ongoing turf war within the grand old party, Haridwar parliamentary constituency has become a bone of contention between the camps headed by Harish Rawat and Pritam Singh. The latter has prompted mercurial Harak Singh Rawat to take on Harish Rawat who seems to have made up his mind to contest from Haridwar Lok Sabha seat in the elections of 2024. The Congress stalwarts are eyeing Haridwar with hope as the party has five MLAs from the district and any overt or covert understanding with BSP would put the party on a strong wicket here. While Harish Rawat’s claim on Haridwar is understandable since he has represented the constituency in past and his daughter is MLA from here, Harak Singh seems to be playing the politics of one-upmanship in this tussle for Haridwar.

Sorcery scare?

In a bizarre incident, a personal secretary of a high ranking bureaucrat of the state was shunted out from his office after an alleged attempt by a disgruntled employee to invoke sorcery against Babu. On discovery of some grains of rice found scattered near the office of the senior Babu, the security officials were informed after which the recordings of the CCTV cameras were scanned. The suspicion of sorcery grew when similar stuff was found near the office of the topmost officer of the Babudom of the state. The grapevine has it that the grains were scattered by an employee who was facing some disciplinary action and he allegedly invoked bad spirits by lacing the grains of rice with black magic as a revenge for the action taken against him. The cameras ostensibly showed this sorcerer with the PS of the Babu following which the flabbergasted fellow had to pay a price for the weird incident.