Himachal confidential: Tea truce

All India BJP general secretary J P Nadda’s election to the Rajya Sabha seems to have drastically changed internal equations in the party. With BJP state incharge Kalraj Mishra also busy with the UP polls and other engagements,Nadda has practically been at the helm of the party affairs in the state. Last week,when Nadda arrived in Shimla to participate in the party’s core group meeting,BJP legislators — mainly Dhumal loyalists — expected him to toe the government line on the Annandale controversy. Nadda,however,was carrying instructions,from the party High Command,to salvage the situation. He promptly landed up and sought to put a lid on the row. This was clearly after Shanta had already gone public to assert that national security was more important than a ‘cricket stadium’.

Delayed change

The corridors of the secretariat are agog with speculation of a bureaucratic reshuffle,including the transfer of at least half a dozen IAS officers and scores of senior HAS officers. Initially,it was expected that the chief minister would clear the transfer list immediately after new Chief Secretary Harinder Hira took charge. But,now with the next senior officer Sudripto Roy — Additional Secretary (Forest and Environment) — set to succeed Hira,the bureaucrats’ wait for change has become too long. As normally happens,bureaucrats and officers,particularly secretary-rank officers and deputy commissioners have already stopped taking major decisions. The buzzword in the secretariat these days is “put up for 15 days” — a clear indication that there will be no major file movement till the transfer list is out.

House warming?

Sudripto Roy,the next chief secretary designate,want his house — the Chief Secretary’s residence currently under construction — in perfect order before he becomes its first occupant. Last week,he visited the bungalow along with top PWD engineers. Built at the insistence of former Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu — who retired before it was completed — the new building will have some distinctive features and working facilities to meet the needs of the state’s top bureaucrat. Many officers were not in agreement with Sandhu over the choice of site — where a century old building was razed to the ground — but after Roy’s visit,PWD engineers are quite relieved. “Boss has liked the building and its design. We will hand-over the house by mid-May,” quipped an engineer.

That feet issue

Union Minister Virbhadra Singh is furious these days after having been told about an IPS officer publically touching the feet of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. “Had I been at Dhumal’s place,I would have suspended the officer (in uniform) for his embarrassing act”,he says even as his tenure was equally infamous for top IAS and IPS officers touching ‘raja sahib’s ’ feet and doing ‘nattis’ (pahari folk dance) at his residence mainly on his birthdays.