SANJAY K.DIXIT'S
TARKASH
DECEMBER 26, 2021.
A strange incident happened in Bihar Vidhan Sabha last week. Labour Minister Jivesh Mishra's car reached the porch in Vidhan Sabha with the minister sitting inside. Police stopped his car inside the legislative assembly premises and police asked him to wait till the cars of the collector and superintendent of police passed through.
Ministers and legislators become powerful during assembly sessions but here the minister's car was forced to give way for officers in Patna. Furious promptly raised the issue in the Vidhan sabha saying when officers could behave like this with a Minister, how would they be behaving with commoners. Speaker got him seated with just words "We'll see." Nothing was going to happen, so the minister later said he was forgiving the collector and SP, who was close to the powers that be. Ministers know what to do in such situations.
One incident also occurred in Mungeli of Chhattisgarh, but in complete contrast to that happened in Patna. A woman Mungeli Janpad member chased Mungeli Janpad CEO Rohit Vyas, brandishing a "slipper" in her hand allegedly threatening to slap the officer. It was the first such incident in Chhattisgarh, which the officers must consider as an alarming trend.
SENIOR RESPONSIBLE-1
Aren't senior officials responsible for what happened with Mungeli CEO? Rohit Vyas is a fresh IAS officer. He certainly wouldn't know what kind of a district is Mungeli. That too a sharp woman leader like Laila Nanku Bhikhari. The woman politician doesn't care if you're a promoted IAS or RR. One can hear CEO Rohit in audio saying "I'll talk to SP while the woman leader replies that what could the SP do? The Mungeli SP is no slouch either. When the woman leader approached SP with a complaint, accusing the CEO of hurling casteist slurs at her. To which, SP calmly replied, "You're all welcome. Actions will be taken after investigation." However, if the senior officials would have updated Rohit with the ground reality of Mungeli, the incident which shook the bureaucracy wouldn't have happened.
SENIORS RESPONSIBLE-2
Earlier the IAS officers had quite a camaraderie. Probationers and Junior Officers used to get quite close to Collector and SP. Many times, like a family member. Collector, SP would often scold the junior officers and also teach them and sometimes even shared a drink or two with juniors. It would de-stress new officers. But after 2014-15, such interaction between Juniors and Seniors slowly declined. Today when IAS officer Amrit Topno talks about resigning from his job due to stress, there is no senior who could scold him or softly explain to him that all this is a part of life. Junior officers require hand-holding for some time till they get adjusted to the system.
MORE POWERFUL
Even Congress leaders were not in a position to claim that they expected such impressive results in the polls to urban civic bodies. Psephologists and political pundits had said that Bhilai, Charoda and Risali have more elite class voters. Urban voters aren't too happy with government policies. But when the results were declared, Congress emerged victorious in all three urban bodies. One can't just say that the ruling party always wins in local elections. During the 15 years of the BJP Government, Congress Mayors were elected in Municipal Corporations like Raipur, Bilaspur, Korba, Rajnandgaon, and Bhilai. It's clear CM Bhupesh Baghel has emerged more powerful after winning the civic polls being dubbed as "political semi-final".
MONITORING OF IPS
Chhattisgarh Government has sent names of IPS officers to the Government of India, on the recommendation of the Service Review Committee. The recommendation is for the forced retirement of three officers and putting one officer under monitoring. Monitoring means watching suspicious activities, which means there is no empirical evidence, but there is suspicion. IPS Longkumer was put under monitoring during BJP Government. However, he became DGP in his home state Nagaland on deputation.
Three IAS officers are facing the possibility of forced retirement. The name of one of them was mentioned in the previous Tarkash. Service Review Committee was chaired by Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain while the members were DGP Ashok Juneja, ACS Subrat Sahoo and Rajasthan DG DL Soni. As per rules, Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary had asked Rajasthan Chief Secretary for a DG-level officer. Rajasthan CS had sent the name of 1988-Batch IPS Soni. A meeting was held on December 4 and four names were decided. During the previous BJP regime, the review committee chaired by the then chief secretary Vivek Dhand in the previous Government had sent names of IPS Rajkumar Dewangan, AM Juri and KC Agrawal for forced retirement. The government of India had retired all three of them. However, Juri and Agrawal had been reinstated after obtaining a stay from CAT. Dewangan's IPS career ended abruptly.
POOR MINISTER
A Minister was made in-charge in Urban Body Elections. The ruling party lagged in the urban body under his charge. Now, Minister is getting restless. He is one of the three Ministers whose names are in circulation as one to be affected in the event of a reshuffle of the Cabinet. According to information, Minister has given free hand to his people and provided whatever they asked with a condition that they must ensure that the urban body should have a party candidate as its head after the polls.
NEW YEAR GIFT
The promotion of IAS Officers is in the final stage. Subodh Singh, Niharika Barik and M Geeta of 1997-Batch will become Principal Secretary. Ankit Anand, Shruti Singh, P Dayanand, CR Prasanna, Alex Paul Menon, Bhuvnesh Yadav and S Bharathidasan Secretary of 2006-Batch will be elevated to Secretary rank. If everything goes fine, CM Bhupesh Baghel could give the new year gift.
QUESTION ON INTENTION
The Columnist in Tarkash dated October 30 had, under the title "In front of your home", written that NRDA was building a railway station to please the bureaucrats and it turned out to be true. Railways have now cancelled three out of four tenders and now floated tender for the station which is close to the land owned by officers. The tender will be filled on December 30. NRDA sold out all the plots by calling them prime properties in front of the station at Sector-15. Many bureaucrats either themselves bought two-three plots or got their relatives to buy the plots. After ten years when Nava Raipur will be developed, they would reap the benefits. It's been told that 80 per cent of plots of the sector belong to officers or their relatives. But then things went south when the Railway project started winding up for the lack of funds. As such, one could understand the anger of bureaucrats, who had invested money, thinking that a station will be built near their homes. Considering the anger of officers, NRDA again floated the tender for the station. The intention of NRDA will come under question for taking such steps to please the bureaucrats.
OATH IN KHADMAAS
Now it has been decided that Mayors in all four Municipal Corporation will be of the ruling party. Now the question is when the council will be formed. The rule says that the Council has to be formed within 15 days of notification publishing in Gazette. So, the Mayors and Municipal Council, Nagar Panchayat Presidents have to take the oath by January 8, 2021. At present, it's "Khadmas", but the rules are rules, can't do anything.
Tailpiece questions
1. Did Service Review Committee recommend that the name of an IPS officer be kept on the monitoring list?
2. Which Minister is now having sleepless nights and is taking sleeping pills after speculation began about a cabinet reshuffle?
