“Officers were victimized by a handful of leaders of Jai Ram’s cabinet” – Vikramaditya

• The man who changed seven Chief Secretaries  in 5 years should refrain  doubting  competence of officers: Vikramaditya

Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh taking a jibe at  Leader of Opposition (LoP) Jai Ram Thakur, stated that he does not have any right to speak against the work culture of the officers of the State Government, who himself failed to judge the competence of the officers and replaced seven Chief Secretaries during his five-year term.

“The officers were victimized by a handful of leaders of Jai Ram’s cabinet and it was the first time ever in the history of the State that seven Chief Secretaries were changed in five years of BJP rule, creating a record” alleged Vikramaditya. Therefore, before making allegations, the LoP should explain to the people of the state why such a situation had come and what was the reason behind the frequent change of officers during BJP. He said that Jai Ram failed to tighten the noose around his colleagues and MLAs as well, as officers were harassed and were given threats of transfers by the leaders. As the officers were undervalued and humiliated during the so called ‘Jan Manch’, started by the BJP, it popularly came to be known as ‘Jhand (Humiliation) Manch’ amongst the people. The condition of the officers in the previous BJP government was like ‘Aaya Ram-Gaya Ram’ and not only the Chief Secretary; many other officers were victims of harassment in the previous government.

The Public Works Minister said that the present state government has ensured ‘security of tenure’ to the officers. After coming to power, the state government neither changed the DC-SPs in the districts nor removed the officers holding other key posts whether in Civil or in Police. This was a new initiative of ‘Vayastha Parivartan’ by the present Government. He said that everyone knows that officers were first changed as soon as the new government was formed earlier, but the present government working with a motto of ‘Vyavshtha Parvirtan’ did nothing like this.

The present state government under the leadership of Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu does not believe in vendetta politics  and realizes well  that officers and employees play an important role in the development of the State or the Nation.  Therefore, all the officers were being given comfortable environment to work in, so that they can contribute to the overall development of Himachal in a better way without any apprehensions of being victimized. This is the reason why many officers are coming back from central deputation today to render their services in Himachal Pradesh. He said that besides this, the state government was also taking many measures for the betterment of the officers and employees, as evident from restoration of the old pension scheme, which ensures the right to live with dignity after serving for more than half of their lives for the State.

Vikramaditya Singh said that LoP was involving himself in sleazy tricks to deceive the people by making concocted statements just to remain in limelight and prove his standing in the party amidst lot many changes taking place in BJPs   State and district bodies. For this very reason the frustration was clearly visible in his statements.