Don’t be scared of CBI, CAG, courts, Khattar to officials
CHINTAN SHIVIR Tells bureaucrats he will stand by their decision taken in public interest
CHANDIGARH: The three-day Chintan Sh iv ir( workshop on governance issues ), organised by the first-time BJP government in Haryana at the upscale Timber Trail Heights in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, started on Friday with chief minister Man ohar Lal Khattar asking bureaucrats to work honestly without fearing the CBI, the courts, the Central Vigilance Commission, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the Central Information Commission.
“Usually, these agencies make IAS officers scared and come in the way of the discharge of their duties. But I assure you that I would always standby you in the decisions you take in public interest ,” said Khattar at the Shivir. He also asked the ministers and officers to work in tandem for framing new polices, saying a new nation can be built for the younger generation if bureaucrats and politicians worked together.
“There is a difference in the functioning of a politician and an officer. An elected politician functions keeping in mind his five-year tenure whereas an officer functions with an eye on merely disposing day to day files. But after today’s deliberations, we should all resolve to work as statesmen,’’ he said.
The chief minister said the state government had prepared a Vision Document 2030 and administrative secretaries should work to ensure its effective implementation. Besides, he also asked them to finalise policies while taking into consideration Haryana in 2019, 2022, 2027 and 2030.
The chief minister said officers should not take this Shivir as a training session but as a brainstorming session aimed at framing polices.
The Shivir being held at a private resort in Himachal had invited flak from the opposition. As per a tentative estimate, the state government will end up shelling at least ₹25 lakhs on the event. About 100 persons includ- ing ministers, IAS, IPS and IFS officers, other officials, security personnel etc are attending the the three day Shivir.
Terming the three-day Shivir as sheer drama, former chief ministerBhu pin der Singh Hooda said on Friday that the fate of the Sh iv ir would be same as th eB J P’ s promise in its poll manifesto to implement Swaminathan commission report.
Hooda said that the BJP had promised to double the income of farmers, but it had done nothing to achieve it. “Recently, the farmers were compelled to sell potatoes for nine paise a kilo. Will the BJP claim to double farmers income if potatoes would sell at 18 paise next season,” he asked sarcastically and added that the BJP’s move to include tractor in the category of commercial vehicles also exposed its anti-farmer functioning.”
He further said ,“Today, farmers are running from pillar to post to get fertilisers even as the BJP government levied taxes on seeds, fertilisers, spare parts of tractor and several other farming tools, thus hitting farmers hard on all fronts,” he added. He also expressed doubts that Shivir would bring a positive outcome as there was no understanding among the ministers in the government.