Bali serious or just pressure tactics?

Transport Minister GS Bali has once again raised the issue of unemployment for youth and women and plans to hold a rally initially in his Assembly segment of Nagrota Bagwan and later at Dharamsala. Obviously, with his remarks causing much discomfiture to the Congress regime, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has said holding any rally without government approval would amount to act of indiscipline.

Now the questions remains whether Bali will succumb to pressure or will go ahead with his plans of addressing issues concerning the educated jobless youth and women, even if its reflects poorly on the state government. Even in the past he has undertaken a padyatra to highlight the issue of unemployment. However, there have been times when he succumbed to such pressure and compromised. So, it will actually be the acid test for Bali and prove that he is serious on his concern over rising unemployment or just raking up the issue as part of pressure politics.

A meaningless exercise?

A classic case of leaders propose and workers dispose! That's what the much-hyped “charge sheet pe charcha” programme of the BJP has been reduced to. While the local leaders were directed to raise the issues which had found prominence in the charge sheet in the first fortnight of February, no such discussion took place. Now another set of district level charge sheets enlisting cases of corruption at the local level are supposed to be worked out across the state by the BJP. One wonders what is the utility of this elaborate exercise when the local leaders were reluctant to raise issues publicly and preferred to quietly confine them to the charge sheet.

Going beyond mere duty

Initiatives like “Muskaan” bring to fore the need for endeavours which go beyond the mundane and routine administrative works which all bureaucrats perform. The credit goes to young IAS couple Rohan Thakur and Mansi Sahay Thakur for actually wanting to make a real and qualitative difference in the lives of people. The results of such extra efforts go a long way in making effective change in the lives of people, especially the women and girl child, the most vulnerable.

The couple as the Deputy Commissioners of Hamirpur and Bilaspur in 2015 took initiative to have a close look at the issue of low child sex ratio. The recent report post the initiatives and interventions clearly shows that sincere efforts on creating awareness, ensuring early registration of pregnancies and tracking of the “vulnerable” pregnancies has yielded results. The sex ratio at birth in both districts was around 900 but shot up to 950 in Hamirpur and 941 in Bilaspur.

Keen to replicate such endeavours even in his present posting as Deputy Commissioner Shimla, Rohan has launched Pehal programme which targets four prime areas - primary education, campaign against drugs, health and sanitation, forest rights and skill development and women empowerment.

Based on the successful implementation of Muskaan in Hamirpur and Bilaspur, Muskaan was launched at the state level by the Chief Minister on October 20, 2016. One wishes that more and more such officers look beyond their normal routine work and try to make a difference in the lives of the common man and rural populace.

(Contributed by Pratibha Chauhan and Ambika Sharma)