Rift deepens between minister, Almora DM

Neena Sharma 

Tribune News Service 

Dehradun, April 6 

The tiff between District Magistrate of Almora Suveen Bansal and Uttarakhand Minister for State (Independent charge) Women and Child Development Rekha Arya has taken a political colour with the Opposition Congress urging the BJP-run government to rein in its ministers. 

During her inspection visit to Almora, Arya had allegedly pressurised Suveen Bansal to withdraw cases against her husband.

Far from entertaining the request of the minister and acting upon it, Bansal is believed to have told her to recommend his transfer, if she was unhappy with his conduct. 

The second time MLA, who had been earlier elected on the Congress ticket, Arya had voted against the Congress during the apex court monitored Trust Vote held last year. Later, she fought the 2017 Assembly elections on the BJP ticket and was elected from Someshwar. 

Significantly a case against Arya’s husband Girdhar Lal a resident of Bareilly was registered during the just concluded Assembly elections in the state.

“My husband is a BJP worker, I had inquired about the cases from the District Magistrate. Besides, I wanted to make sure that he looked into the complaints of the BJP workers,” said Rekha Arya. 

The entire episode has not gone unnoticed by the Opposition and it has given a handle to the Congress to attack the BJP government on propriety and its ability to give good governance to the people of the state. 

State Congress chief Kishore Upadhyay had questioned the BJP government’s willingness to abide by its electoral promises. “The party had promised to instil a clean administration was indulging in terrorising the bureaucracy. It should ensure that its ministers do not interfere in the functioning of the bureaucracy for personal reasons,” he said.

While recognising the need to ensure the party workers of the BJP and ministers did not interfere in the day to day issues of government, BJP chief Ajay Bhatt dismissed this particular incident. “The Congress is unable to digest the defeat that it received at the hands of the BJP in the elections. Now, the BJP government is in power, the bureaucracy has to ensure the party workers of the BJP are not ignored,” he said.