Bureaucracy on wait & watch mode in U’khand!

By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 21 Feb: Now that the polling for the new Assembly and the government is over in Uttarakhand and the results are awaited, the majority of the bureaucrats are currently waiting to see who comes to power. Some, bureaucrats, however, who somehow manage to remain in the good books of whosoever is ruling the state have already started lobbying for plum postings of their choice. They have started calling quietly on senior leaders of both the BJP and the Congress and lobbying for postings of their choice.
Speaking to Garhwal Post, some senior bureaucrats opined that a large scale reshuffle is bound to happen irrespective of which party comes to power. They believe that Pushkar Singh Dhami would remain the Chief Minister in case of BJP managing to retain power and, hence, they admit that some of their colleagues are already lobbying with him and some RSS functionaries in the state. They are also probably lobbying with Congress leaders like Harish Rawat and Ganesh Godiyal for the same reason. It was further stated that, in case the BJP manages to retain power, Dhami, who could not reshuffle the bureaucracy and senior police officers on a large scale as per his desire and the feedback available to him when he became the Chief Minister six months ago for paucity of time and other practical constraints, would be eager to do so if BJP comes to power once again. Sources add that large scale transfers of the District Magistrates and SSPs/SPs of districts is the first thing that can be expected irrespective of whichever party comes to power. In case of power changing hands from BJP to Congress, the Chief Minister’s Office is bound to see a total overhaul immediately after the change in the guard.
Sources also claim that, both, the BJP and Congress leadership are also preparing their lists of officers whom they are planning to transfer to certain posts and the lists of officers to shift out. Some officers, however, are also planning to get approval of whichever government comes to power for deputation to the Centre or to other states. Among them are officers of the IAS, IPS as well as IFS (Forest Service Cadre). Some of these officers are them are those already empanelled for Central deputation by the Government of India and would prefer to go irrespective of whichever party comes to power. Among them, according to sources, are Additional Chief Secretary Anand Vardhan, who was ACS to CM, as he has been already empanelled and in fact had also been granted NOC by the state government even before the polls. He may get charge as Secretary in a Government of India ministry. In addition, Principal Secretary RK Sudhanshu is also empanelled for Central deputation and might join the Government of India as Joint Secretary and then get promoted to Additional Secretary there. Secretary, Finance, Amit Singh Negi is also learnt to be interested in a central posting. Sachin Kurve is another senior IAS officer who according to his bureaucratic colleagues is waiting for a central deputation as Joint Secretary.
What is ironic, however, is the fact that Uttarakhand is currently facing a crunch of senior bureaucrats.
It is not just the bureaucrats but also senior officers either heading various department or holding senior positions in various departments and corporations who have begun lobbying to retain positions or to get plum postings. Bureaucrats claim that it is easier for these officers to lobby more openly and offer other benefits to the ministers in exchange for plum postings as compared to the bureaucrats.