Express News Service
DEHRADUN: Immediately after swearing-in as Chief Minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami announced various measures including recruitment in state government jobs.
Major decisions of the first cabinet meeting included the raising of salary of guest teachers from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000, reinstating employees of state government polytechnic institutions, formation of a committee to assess the paygrade of the state police force, to start recruitment in state government departments to fill at least 20,000-22,000 vacancies and formation of a committee to look into former army personnel who are working on many government departments on meager salaries.
“We took 7 key decisions and 6 commitments to follow. Our aim is to put Uttarakhand on top of this nation on every level. We will aim to provide solutions of problems faced by the people of the state,” said the CM.
Following the recent change of leadership in Uttarakhand, now Chief Secretary Om Prakash has been replaced by SS Sandhu, 1988 batch IAS officer as the CS of the state.
Sandhu who was posted as chairman of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) was relieved only on Monday.
“In the welfare of people, you have been appointed Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand and I have been given charge of the chairperson of Board of Revenue,” said the official communique by Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi.
Trail of controversies are following after the change of guard in Uttarakhand.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s tweet from 2015 with a map of ‘Akhanda Bharat’ which includes Pakistan, Bangladesh and other neighboring countries in the map has parts of Laddakh missing.
The tweet has started going viral with netizens as well as opposition members criticizing and lampooning him.
Sumit Hridayesh, a member of All India Congress Committee said, “This is blatant disregard for country’s sovereignty. The BJP is known for such hypocrisy and acts of demeaning the country. Twitter and many other firms have been facing a lot of sanctions for wrong maps. The Chief Minister should apologize for this and correct his stance.”
Former IAS officer and CEO of Prasar Bharti Tweeted with the map, “Shouldn’t BJP be making this man Foreign Minister of India rather than CM of a tiny state like Uttarakhand? Then, we can all move to 3rd World War!”
Meanwhile, former state BJP president and incumbent senior cabinet minister Bansidhar Bhagat said that it does not matter if the party changes one or ten Chief Ministers.
“People do not care if the party changes one or ten Chief Ministers. They just want good governance, work and development. Change of CM is party’s internal matter,” said Bhagat.
With portfolio allocation soon, the party will try to pacify the senior members of the cabinet with ‘even distribution’, said sources.
“The crisis was managed by whole day of fire fighting by the state as well as central leadership. But real challenge still lurks. Senior members of the cabinet are likely to be given more portfolios than earlier. This will lessen the burden on the CM as well as pacify the discontented seniors,” said a party insider.
