A day after a protest held by scores of youths in Dehradun, flagging paper leaks in government recruitment exams and demanding a CBI inquiry into such scams, turned violent, Uttarakhand Governor Friday gave his assent to an Ordinance brought by the Pushkar Singh Dhami-led BJP government to prevent the use of unfair means in recruitment exams. The Ordinance, Uttarakhand Competitive Examination (Measures for Prevention and Redressal of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Ordinance, was urgently approved by Chief Minister Dhami and forwarded to the Raj Bhavan on Thursday itself. With Governor Lt Gen (retd) Gurmit Singh’s assent, it became law within 24 hours. As per the Ordinance, if a person, printing press, service provider, management, coaching institute etc are found to be using illegal means, there is a provision of a life sentence and a fine of up to Rs 10 crore. If a person conspires with the organisation responsible for conducting the exams, in an organised way, he/she will be liable for a maximum punishment of life imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 10 crore. Following the protest held under the aegis of the Uttarakhand Berozgaar Union, which saw stones being hurled and police resorting to lathi-charge on the protesters leaving many youths and policemen injured, CM Dhami told reporters that for the sake of the students’ welfare his government has cancelled all the exams where it got any complaints and rescheduled them. Dhami met the Berozgaar Union’s representatives, assuring them of his government’s commitment to conduct “unbiased, cheating-free and transparent exams”. The Dhami government also announced that it will ask the state police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the Patwari recruitment paper leak case under the supervision of a high court judge, holding that the Uttarakhand High Court has already turned down the plea for a CBI inquiry. Referring to the Ordinance, Dhami said the state has brought the country’s “strictest anti-cheating law”. His current move is, however, seen by many to be in line with several other decisions taken by his government only after pressure created by protests and backlashes from the stakeholders concerned. These involve cases including the now-repealed Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act, “irregularities” in the UKSSSC exams, Ankita Bhandari murder case, and the Joshimath land subsidence disaster. Talking to The Indian Express, Uttarakhand Congress president Karan Mahara cited the above cases, charging that instead of taking preventive action Dhami’s approach was “reactive” on them. “All they (Dhami dispensation) tried to do is to hide their sins. There is clear mishandling of the situation, which shows his (CM Dhami’s) lack of experience. He is working on his consultants’ wrong suggestions.… Making laws is not the solution to everything. We already have laws under which action could be taken. This ploy of making new laws is just a way of diverting people’s attention,” Mahara said. “The Chief Minister works more in a reaction mode. In an attempt to look ‘dhakad’ he ran bulldozers (on Pulkit Arya’s Vanantra resort) in Ankita Bhandari murder case, and the DM had to change his statements twice. This shows the lack of experience of both the CM and his consultants,” he said. Senior Congress leader and ex-CM Harish Rawat also accused the Dhami government of taking decisions only under pressure and not taking preventive action. Rawat said the Dhami government would first ignore the people’s demands and then try to “suppress” them. “They tried to sabotage this student movement too. The stone pelting on Thursday was not from people… They were members of BJP and ABVP. I also feel that an anti-Dhami lobby within the BJP is trying to make things adverse for Dhami. I believe there is a similar lobby within the administration too. They are misleading the Chief Minister. No one in the government can be rigid,” he said. However, Uttarakhand BJP media in-charge Manveer Chauhan denied that the Dhami government has been working only in a “reactive mode”, saying that any government should always take into account public sentiments and make changes accordingly. “The government is for the people of the state and their welfare. If there are issues, we need to make amendments. When a government does that, it shows that the government is listening to the people and value their suggestions… The Dhami government is taking historical decisions. His government returned to power with a great majority. Those who question his experience and capabilities are definitely spreading propaganda,” said Chauhan. “The cheating mafia became active in the Congress regime but they did nothing to stop it. It is the Dhami government that is brave enough to cut this deep-rooted tree. The law did not come suddenly. When the UKSSSC case came to light, it was announced that we will bring a strict law against cheating. It was supposed to be brought in a cabinet meeting on Friday, but the meeting was postponed to February 15. However, the protest happened and we decided to bring the law a few days earlier,” he said. Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act In December 2021, two months before the Assembly elections, the Dhami government, faced with continued backlash against the constitution of the Char Dham Devasthanam Board, announced that the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act under which the Board was set up would be withdrawn. Dhami said this decision was taken in view of sentiments of people, honour of priests and interest of stakeholders and others associated with Char Dham. The Bill was brought by the Trivendra Singh Rawat-led BJP government. The Bill, aimed at bringing the Char Dham or the four shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, besides 49 other temples, under the purview of a shrine Board, was passed by the Assembly in December 2019, amid protests inside and outside the House. On January 15, 2020, the government constituted the Board. However, people holding different responsibilities in the Char Dham temples came out under the aegis of the Char Dham Mahapanchayat Hakukdhari to oppose the Bill. Pandas, Dimris and others who run dharmshalas and shops at the Badrinath and Kedarnath shrines staged protests in Dehradun. They alleged that the government will get control of the shrines and donations through the Board. On November 1, 2021, Trivendra had faced protests when he visited Kedarnath, with priests showing him black flags and forcing him to return without offering prayers. Subsequently, the BJP leadership asked Trivendra to step down from his post. Irregularities in UKSSSC exams In September last year, the Uttarakhand Cabinet passed a proposal to transfer the under-process recruitment of 7,000 vacancies by the Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UKSSSC) to the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission. Two days later, the state government ordered a vigilance inquiry against six persons, including top officials, over alleged irregularities in the UKSSSC exams. The case was related to a written exam conducted by the UKSSSC on December 4-5, 2021, in which about 1.6 lakh candidates appeared and 916 were selected for different departments. The government’s move came after several student organisations alleged irregularities in the conduct of the test, and that some exam papers were sold to the examinees in advance. The Opposition also attacked the state government over this scam. CM Dhami then asked the DGP to crack down on the accused, following which an FIR was registered on July 22 last year. The UKSSSC secretary was removed. The case was later handed over to the STF, whose investigation found that over 50 candidates were selected on the basis of the paper leak. Ankita Bhandari murder case The murder of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari convulsed Uttarakhand, leading to massive protests across the state, which forced the Dhami government to swing into action. On the night of September 18 last year, Ankita was killed allegedly by three persons, including BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit Arya. Initially, the accused claimed that Ankita, an employee of Pulkit’s resort, had gone missing from her room there, but after electronic and circumstantial evidence contradicted it, they confessed to having pushed her into the Chilla canal following an altercation. While the incident went largely unnoticed for five days, it made national headlines after the arrests. Massive protests broke out across the state, with the protesters demanding strict punishment for the accused and justice for Ankita. During her postmortem at AIIMS Rishikesh, some of the protesters attacked the vehicle of BJP MLA Renu Bisht. They also blocked the road outside the AIIMS, accusing the police of using force against them. Ankita’s family members refused to cremate her body and demanded that the case be tried in a fast-track court. The case, which was initially handled by a revenue sub-inspector (Patwari), was later handed over to police. Subsequently, Dhami ordered a SIT probe, with his government declaring that the accused will be booked under the Gangster Act. The administration also demolished a section of Pulkit’s resort, which drew allegations of being an attempt to “get rid of crucial evidence” at the resort. The government denied such charges. The BJP expelled both Vinod and Pulkit’s elder brother Ankit from the party. The government also removed Ankit as the vice president of the state OBC Commission. The case also revived the demand for replacing the revenue police system with the regular policing in the hill state, following which the Dhami Cabinet gave its nod to it. Joshimath land subsidence In Chamoli district’s Joshimath town affected by land subsidence, larger cracks had appeared on the intervening night of January 2-3, prompting the state government to run large relief operations in the town. However, many in the affected town claim that minor cracks started appearing several months ago, but not much was done about it. In December last year, thousands of locals staged a protest to draw the government’s attention to the issue of their houses developing cracks as a result of land subsidence. Residents alleged that cracks had been developing in their houses since last year, but there was not enough response from the administration. Following the protests, Dhami attended a high-level meeting with senior officials through video conferencing on January 6 and directed them to ensure temporary rehabilitation centres at safe places for the affected families in Joshimath. Next day he visited Joshimath for his assessment and assured the affected families of all possible help. Three days after several houses in Joshimath developed bigger cracks, Dhami directed the authorities to work on the immediate action plan and ensure that work on the treatment of danger zones, sewer, and drainage should be completed before the monsoons. He asked the officials that the work on the drainage plan should be completed urgently. These were the recommendations made in the 1976 Mahesh Chandra Mishra Committee report. The state government also announced that the families whose houses were not safe to live in, would be provided Rs 4,000 (later increased to Rs 5,000) as rent for the next 6 months. The CM asked the officials to ensure all facilities in the relief shelters and make plans at the sectoral and zonal levels. While those affected were shifted to temporary shelters, the work on temporary resettlement in pre-fabricated structures and later permanent rehabilitation started in January. The government also involved several technical institutions to study the disaster-affected area and submit reports. It was announced that the reports submitted by the institutions will be compiled by a team from the National Disaster Management Authority. Dhami said that after a detailed study of the load-bearing capacity of all such areas, they will make a state-wide plan.
