Cutting the flab, Khanduri style

With Bazpur seat in his kitty and the difficult task of forming his ministry over, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj. Gen (retd) B C Khanduri is a confident man.

With Bazpur seat in his kitty and the difficult task of forming his ministry over, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj. Gen (retd) B C Khanduri is a confident man. And it shows in his efforts to usher in administrative reforms.

On the campaign trail, Khanduri had promised to provide an accountable and transparent administration. Former chief minister N D Tiwari was known to be soft on bureaucrats but Khanduri over the past month has sent a clear message that he won’t tolerate any slackness on part of the babus, particularly in matters financial.

As a first step towards ensuring financial discipline, the Chief Minister has decreed that officials holding charge of more than one department would be allowed only one car and even its use is to be accounted for. The officials have been advised to travel by train to Delhi or within the state instead of by the official vehicle.

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In another order, all officials posted at remote hill areas have been asked to join their place of posting immediately instead of spending time in the state capital trying to get their transfers changed to plain areas.

Taking the reforms drive further, the government has now issued directions to principal secretaries and secretaries to provide information about financial and administrative irregularities in departments under them. Details have also been sought on the officials found guilty of wrongdoing and administrative action initiated against them. Scams reported during the previous Congress regime are also being inquired into.

After depriving the bureaucrats unbridled use of official cars, Khanduri also imposed a near ban on holding of government functions, seminars and conferences in private hotels. The Chief Secretary has asked all departments to use the state-run Hotel Management Institute in Dehradun for holding such functions.

Even government attorneys are in the line of fire. The government has decided to do away with the services of six advocate generals and a total of 47 attorneys working at Nainital, the Lucknow High Court and the Allahabad Bench. Now, a team of only 17 advocates would work for the government thereby saving Rs 2 crore per annum.

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The Chief Minister has also cut down drastically on expenditure on security provided to VIPs that included bureaucrats, businessmen and even journalist. Security personnel of 300 such ‘VIPs’ have been withdrawn while a committee has been formed to review the security threat to 171 others. However, Khanduri who has himself refused to accept Z-plus security has provided the same to former CM Tiwari as a special case. Khanduri has reiterated that all cases of corruption in the past five years would be probed and stringent action initiated against those found guilty. The state government plans to bring out a white paper too on the state’s financial health.