Cabinet Expansion on cards?
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 11 Sep: The meeting of the state cabinet that was to be held today has been postponed in view of the Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s departure for New Delhi. Tomorrow, the CM is expected to leave Delhi for Jammu & Kashmir and campaign for the BJP in the assembly elections being held there. The CM left for Delhi at 12:30 p.m. today. Also, with some ministers already out of town, sources claimed that it would have been difficult to meet the necessary quorum for the meeting. Sources said that in the Cabinet meeting that has been postponed, only three to four agenda points were to be discussed, which can also be done later.
For the last two and a half years, the issue of a possible cabinet expansion has been hitting the headlines but, in reality, there has been no real progress, so far, in this regard. Now it is again being speculated not only in the media circles but also within the BJP that a cabinet expansion or even a reshuffle may be on the cards soon.
It is also claimed that Dhami may also meet some Union Ministers during his Delhi visit. He has been visiting Delhi from time to time to pursue some development projects and schemes related to the state with the union ministers.
Sources claimed that in the cabinet meeting that was scheduled to be held today, a proposal related to cut off date for regulating ad-hoc and contractual employees was one of the agenda points. It may be recalled a proposal related to regulation of ad-hoc and contract employees of the state was approved in principle but no consensus regarding the cut-off date could be arrived at and, therefore, it was decided that the proposal will be taken up in the next cabinet meeting. In addition, a proposal to increase the ex-gratia payment to the dependants of the martyrs from the defence or para-military forces was also likely to be taken up today.
It may be recalled that on the occasion of Shaurya Diwas on 26 July, CM Dhami had announced that ex-gratia payment to the dependants of the martyrs would be increased from Rs 10 lakhs to Rs 50 lakhs. The sources claimed that this issue was also on the agenda of the cabinet meeting that has been postponed.
In addition, the government had also recently announced that, on the lines of the Uttar Pradesh government, the government will give family pension to unmarried, widowed and divorced daughters of government employees or pensioners. This point was also on the agenda of the cabinet meeting according to the sources. They also added that a proposal to increase the honorarium of guest teachers, a proposal to form a State Allied and Health Care Council to improve the quality of health services were also likely to be presented before the cabinet for approval. A proposal to set up an advanced high tech forensic lab in Dehradun to detect tampering with land records to prevent land frauds was also likely to be taken up. At present, the land records are sent to Chandigarh for investigation. All these issues are now likely to be taken up in the next cabinet meeting.
In the political circles, there is wide speculation this time regarding a possible expansion in the Dhami Council of Ministers. Some sources in the BJP claim that the Dhami cabinet may be expanded before 17 September. These sources are linking the current Delhi visit of the CM with this issue also. There are at present four vacancies in the Council of Ministers. When the government had taken over, there were three vacancies, but after the death of Cabinet Minister Chandan Ram Das, the total vacancies have increased to 4.
