HP officialdom

Sept.23, 2001

 

CM's coterie costs Himachal dear
S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

Shimla, September 22
With the grip of the coterie somewhat weakening over the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, bureaucracy in Himachal Pradesh has heaved a sigh of relief.

The caucus had reportedly been influencing the decisions of Mr Dhumal for the past over three years. Their interference in almost every decision-making process was not relished by the bureaucracy which had got sidelined from the time the BJP-HVC combine government came into power.

Much damage has been caused by the coterie in relations between the Chief Minister and the top bureaucracy and this is evident from the fact that some of them, during a recent meeting with Mr Dhumal, reportedly suggested that proper officers should be placed at right positions and work assigned to them.

What was agonising for the bureaucracy was that a coterie consisting of middle and lower-rung officers had surrounded Mr Dhumal and at times did not lose the opportunity to get senior-level bureaucrats humiliated.

Signs of the clutches of the caucus weakening over the Chief Minister appeared recently when his Principal Secretary, Mr Ajay Mittal, was relieved of the charge of Secretary Excise and Taxation. Earlier, he was given additional charge of Secretary, Tourism, for a single day.

The officialdom here is citing this as a major example of the weakening of the caucus.

However, some senior bureaucrats point out that Mr Dhumal has lost much time in realising the machinations of the coterie and has come out of its tentacles when much damage has already been caused to the reputation of government.

A wrong decision by certain members of the caucus is reported to have recently caused a loss of about Rs 16 crore to the financially starved state government, but the lapse has been pushed under the carpet. It pertains to the refusal of permission to disinvest one lakh shares of the HFCL by the state Electronics Development Corporation when their price was quoted at Rs 1600 each and was good enough to bring the sick corporation out of the red, but now the price of each share has dipped around Rs 30.

Atleast two members of the coterie have already gone on deputation to the centre after having remained in the forefront all this time. Another officer, who was close to Mr Virbhadra Singh during the previous Congress regime, is now the blue eyed boy of Mr Dhumal. This coterie has been nicknamed "computer boys" of Mr Dhumal.