Friday, 09 October 2020 | Gajendra Singh Negi | Dehradun
DEMANDING DEPARTMENT
The Babus of the Education department in Uttarakhand, which is biggest in terms of employee strength, have a peculiar and often hilarious style of functioning. The latest being their decree to more than 40,000 teachers of primary and upper primary schools to submit three sets of self attested copies of their educational and other qualifications in the office of their Block Education Officer at the earliest. The directive was prompted in the wake of Uttarakhand High Court order which directed the gargantuan department to verify documents of teachers appointed on the basis of forged documents within three weeks. The order to ask teachers to produce their documents seems innocuous on papers but it also shows that the department either doesn’t have the records of the teachers with it or it lacks the courage to remove the dust from its record rooms. The court in order to detect the black sheep among teachers had asked the department to check the documents on the basis of which they were able to secure a government job. One wonders whether the crooks that got the jobs would submit evidence of their misappropriation to the department with such an ease and would not engage in more manipulation to save their skin. For real scrutiny the record rooms of the department should be checked as the actual evidence could be hidden there.
HOT POTATO
With her allegedly brusque ways the only female minister in TSR’s team has created a very bad name for herself in the Babudom of the state. Most recently one more senior bureaucrat was shunted out of the department headed by the minister since the officer stoically refused to work under her. The officer who happens to be a high profile woman bureaucrat with an unblemished career record is said to be the third IAS officer who has shown reluctance to work with the honourable minister who stirred up a controversy recently for submitting a police complaint against an officer for not picking up her phone. Interestingly the minister is being detested not only by the bureaucrats but it is learnt that not many are interested to work in her staff either. It would be interesting to note in the coming days as to how the demanding and energetic minister reacts to a more or less insolent babudom against her.
AGE BLOCKAGE?
On surface there appears a divine tranquility in the affairs of the saffron party in the Himalayan state but beneath this apparent calmness on the surface, intense political activity, ambitions of top leaders and clash of personal interests remain swirling inside. In the recent declaration of state executive and nomination of office bearers of various cells of the party, this difference came to fore so much so that after much deliberation the party is not able to announce the team of its youth cell. The grapevine has it that a very senior leader entrusted with a coveted position in the state unit wants his son appointed to the post of general secretary of the youth cell. However his age is proving to be an obstacle in this task and ambition of his father as he is no longer a youth as per the definition of the party.
