The Congress government in the State has a peculiar manpower crisis: it may have launched programmes as promised in its election manifesto, but it does not have enough IAS officers to implement and monitor them. The State is short of 100 IAS officers, an official in the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms told The Hindu . If its authorised strength is 315, only 215 officers are serving in the State. As such, Ministers are unable to start all the schemes. One impact of this is that senior bureaucrats like Shalini Rajneesh, P.B. Ramamurthy, Vandita Sharma, N. Sivasailam, Ravi Kumar, and Bharatlal Meena, to name a few, have been entrusted with two departments, while in other cases, many KAS officers have been directed to hold the fort until IAS officers are appointed. Admitting that there was a shortage of top-level bureaucrats in many departments, the official said the government is trying hard to bring in more officers. For the past few years, the Centre had deputed eight IAS officers to the State each year. “The Chief Minister will write to the Centre to depute more officers to the State cadre,” the official said.
Smooth drive
There is a festive atmosphere in most of the State-owned boards and corporations who have now got new chiefs. But, there seems to be a small issue over their vehicles. While a few of the chiefs logged in last week in new multi-utility vehicles, those heading the less profitable boards have inherited year-old MUVs. An official in the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms said it was up to the respective departments or boards and corporations to allot cars for the new appointees. “My department’s responsibility is to provide cars only for the Chief Minister and Ministers,” the official said. Soon after taking charge, several chairpersons have started drawing the roadmap for developmental activities to be taken up during their tenure. We must wait another 18 months to see their progress.
PU college vs. homes for poor
Minister for Health and Family Welfare U.T. Khader and Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat vice-president Satish Kumpala of the BJP have locked horns over a 4.33-acre plot at Konajae near Mangalore University. Mr. Kumpala was apparently in favour of using the government land to build a housing colony for the poor. However, Mr. Khader directed the Assistant Commissioner of Mangaluru Sub-Division and the Tahsildar to allot it for building a government pre-university college. At a recent meeting of the Karnataka Development Programme, the two leaders got into an argument even as Ministers B. Ramanath Rai, K. Abhayachandra Jain watched silently along with a few senior district officials. Mr. Khader went on to direct officials to reserve the land for the college. Why is the Minister so keen on building a college there? The other side says that two years back, the list of beneficiaries of the housing site plan was drawn up by the president of Konajae gram panchayat, who happens to be a JD(S) activist. Now, if these people get the sites, the credit will go to the JD(S). Mr. Khader, as MLA for the Mangaluru constituency, can change the list but it is sure to stir up a controversy.
Belagavi resting on past laurels?
The Belagavi City Corporation (BCC) seems to be resting on its past laurels which include the National Urban Water Award 2010; Green Leaf Award 2011 for best garbage disposal; and the Best Urban Local Body Award 2009 among city municipal corporations. The flip side of these urban medals is that this city, which had been considered for Karnataka’s second capital, gets its drinking water supply once in four days normally, and this falls to once in six to 10 days during summer.
The garbage disposal system is somewhat better with door-to-door collection but hundreds of open sites are filled with weeds and are homes for pigs and stray dogs. Further, the BCC council was superseded in 2005, 2011, and 2012 on the ground of non-performance, certain controversial resolutions, irregularities and omissions and commissions.
Further, nearly 300 commercial complexes let out basements meant for vehicle parking for commercial purposes. BCC Mayor Mahesh K. Naik says the basements would be cleared during the winter session of the legislature.
Let’s wait and watch if the story will be any different when the winter session starts from December 9.
