Gajendra Singh Negi
Tainted Officer
Known for stoking controversies, the perennial problem child of Babudom of Uttarakhand Mrityunjay Mishra has again grabbed eyeballs by reclaiming the position of registrar of the Uttarakhand Ayurveda University. Though the vice chancellor of the university has opposed the re appointment of tainted Mishra, the manner in which the state administration gave green signal to the controversial officer who till recently was in jail shows his manipulative and management skills. Mishra, a college teacher by profession remained a blue eyed boy of the politicians and top Babus for a major part of his career which enabled him to evade the mundane and non lucrative task of teaching college students and wrest plum assignments in different varsities and government departments. Mishra’s bad phase started during the reign of former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat when a vigilance inquiry on a bevy of charges against him was ordered following which he was sent behind the bars. The Ayush minister with a macho image but a very soft heart has probably melted under the plight of the skilful officer and has reinstated him on the post of registrar of the Ayurveda varsity. However the entire episode has created an uncomfortable situation for the government which claims to have a zero tolerance on corruption.
Tablet trouble
The procedural complexities coupled with lack of initiative on part of the Babudom of the state deprived the young CM Pushkar Singh Dhami and ministers holding the education and higher education portfolios of the important photo opportunity of distributing tablets to the students. In an attempt to win over the young first time voters ahead of the elections, the government decided to distribute tablets to 2.59 lakh students appearing in Uttarakhand board examinations and all the students enrolled in government colleges of the state. However, delay in the tender process forced the government to take a decision of transferring the money of the Tablet into the bank account of students instead of giving them gadgets. At a time when in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanth is handing over tablets to students in well attended programmes his counterpart in Uttarakhand would surely rue for missing the great opportunity which would have been handy in attracting the young voters of the state in the upcoming elections.
Chinese checkers
The conductors of the buses of the Uttarakhand roadways have got baffled with the new ticket vending machines provided by the management of the transport corporation. These conductors who for long had complained about the old ticket vending machines were very happy when new machines were handed over to them. Their joy however was short-lived when they found that the new machine with a made in China mark is actually more problematic than the old one. They discovered that the new small gadget has a technical glitch which hangs it occasionally and their battery gets exhausted even before they reach their destination station. A red faced management of the transport corporation is now claiming that they had no other option other than ordering them from China and that these machines have only been given for trial purposes.
