AHMEDABAD, JUNE 15: Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel's much touted parivartan (change) theme is taking a direct beating when it comes to the most important tool of change: The bureaucracy. The change has not flowed from the top and the result has been the horrible mismanagement of the cyclone situation.Patel's own partymen are disillusioned with his inability to bring about a change at the helm of affairs, as he has been unable to change Chief Secretary LNS Mukandan, principal secretary PK Lahiri and Home Secretary Ram Rakhiyani. The three are the remnants of the Shankersinh Vaghela-Dilip Parikh era.The administrative machinery which had allegedly helped the RJP Government ``make controversial decisions'' is still in place.The starkest example is R Shukla, who was the collector of Gandhinagar during Vaghela's tenure. He approved land deals worth Rs 16 crore and allegedly enabled transfer of land to Samarpan Seva Trust. Vaghela is generally believed to be running the trust. Shukla happened toretire on April 30 this year and on May 1, 1998 he got a special posting in the Chief Minister's Office.The Mukanadan-Lahiri team too, which had supervised relief operations during the floods in Mehsana district during Vaghela's regime is still in place.A 24-hour warning was good enough to send at least a cavalcade of trucks from various parts of the State to places which were going to be affected.But due to lack of planning on the part of the administration, there was a shortage of vehicles for relief work.The bureaucracy itself is divided over the manner in which the Chief Minister is being advised. Some maintain that the Chief Minister is ``not even able to meet others and see the other side of the story''.The tendency to run everything from the CMO is also resented. ``The Chief Minister's style of working is such that he likes to take every one along with him and is trying to use the same officers as antidote for the previous regime,'' says a middle-rung officer.Party spokesman BharatPandya echoes the same sentiments: ``Keshubhai does not want acrimony within the senior ranks and may be these same officers will lead us to the wrongdoings of Vaghela and Parikh.''But Vaghela is indifferent. ``This Government should resign for its handling of the cyclone situation. What has it found against me. It should stop making baseless allegations.''May be he is emboldened by the failure of the fact that the Suresh Mehta Committee which was supposed to investigate and issue a white paper on ``corruption during Vaghela regime'' has been unable to come up with a shred of paper against him.
