IRAS’ Sharma heads to CM office

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 5

The Haryana government today issued orders appointing Indian Railway Accounts Service(IRAS) officer Vijay Sharma as Officer of Special Duty (OSD) in the office of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. He is the sixth OSD to be appointed in the CM’s office since the Khattar government took over seven months ago.

Sources said Sharma comes with a “recommendation” of an RSS leader and joined a month after the state government sought his deputation to Haryana, indicating growing RSS “interference and clout” in the state which has the first-ever BJP government.

The “appointments” made by the Khattar government in the CM office, including his political adviser, political secretary and media adviser nearly equal the officials of the CM staff during the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda government had at the end of its 10-year-rule in Haryana.

This not only belies the government’s reiteration of “minimum government , maximum governance” but also indicates that the Haryana government can’t independently take a call on the people it wants to take on board. Instead, it has to bear whenever an “extra hand” is thrust upon the state and “create” workload to justify the appointment.

While work allocation is yet to be worked out for Sharma, it was initially being contemplated to appoint him as the principal OSD, over and above the other OSDs. However, sources said that this had been put off for the time being with the government issuing orders of his appointment as an OSD.

Sources said that Haryana is the RSS’s new hunting ground for “fitting its men” into the system for monitoring and guiding the government. The setting up of the Education Advisory Committee under RSS ideologue Dinanath Batra, the roping in of yoga guru Baba Ramdev, the introduction of the Bhagwad Gita in the school curriculum are directions coming from the RSS, sources said.

Khattar has already been accused of being “remote-controlled” from the Centre since clearances of all appointments come from the party top brass in consultation with the RSS. Sources said though the government was keen on appointing chairpersons to various boards and corporations of Haryana, it was being delayed for want of clearance from the party top brass and the RSS.

Activist flays RSS man’s selection as UHBVN director

Panipat: n RTI activist has criticised the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government in Haryana for appointing RSS man Balram Nandwani as director of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam(UHBVN). Interestingly other two appointees Anil Gupta and Assem Khurana are also RSS men.  While RTI activist PP Kapoor termed such appointments as an attempt to saffronise various government institutions, state INLD president Ashok Arora said he had no objection if RSS men were appointed provided if they were technically sound for these posts. UHBVN director Balram Nandwani said he had been working as a CA for 25 years and the other two appointees — Anil Gupta and Assem Khurana—-were also CAs. Admitting that they are RSS men, he said : “We had been in the field of social service for decades. As director, my priority will be to reduce fiscal deficit, among other things.” 

Dharmendra Joshi