Early Times Report
JAMMU, June 3: BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, who has become very unpopular in Jammu because of his negative attitude towards it, is in a precarious situation. On the one hand, the people of Jammu province have no love lost for him, and, on the other hand, he is not being taken seriously by the Kashmiri bureaucracy. The Chief Secretary has cut him to his size and shown him his place by transferring two KAS officials and posting them in the Power Development Department (PDD) and in the office of Deputy Commissioner, Jammu.
Significantly, the KAS officials who were transferred were working in the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC). The Deputy Chief Minister wanted the Chief Secretary not to transfer these officials for reasons best known to him. However, it was clear that he had made it a personal issue and an issue of prestige. But the determined Chief Secretary got the transfer orders enforced in no time telling the Deputy Chief Minister that it was the writ of the Kashmiri ruling elite and Kashmiri bureaucracy that runs in the state and the sooner he realizes his position, the better for him. More significantly, one of the two officials was posted in the PDP -- the department that Nirmal Singh heads as PDD Minister.
The Kashmiri bureaucracy not only ignored his letter asking the Chief Secretary that the Minister concerned was not taken on board while issuing transfer orders, but also posted an official in his own department despite the fact that his office had written a letter against that transfer order. So, the Chief Secretary not only enforced the transfer orders, but posted one of the two officials in the Deputy Chief Minister's department.
Now that the Kashmiri bureaucracy has acted against the wishes of Nirmal Singh, it is time for him to save his self-respect. He has only two options. One is that he forces the Kashmiri bureaucracy to rollback the two transfer order and post persons of his choice in his department. The other is he quits the government. The first option is not feasible because the Kashmiri bureaucracy will not oblige him. Clearly, the only option available to him is resignation. But the question is: will he leave the office and save his self-respect? |
