Himachal minister Jagat Singh Negi slams ex-Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla over ‘work culture’ remark

Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi on Wednesday hit out at Shiv Pratap Shukla, the former Governor of Himachal, for questioning the work culture of the state. “Shukla should have looked at his work culture during his three-year tenure before passing judgment on the state’s work culture. For three years, he sat on a file pertaining to granting nautor land to the tribal people,” said Negi. In his last press interaction as Governor of the state, Shukla had said he noticed the lack of work culture in Himachal and the state would lag behind if it wasn’t improved.

Negi also objected to Shukla’s comment that he did not get adequate information from the government to move ahead in the nautor land matter. “It was an irresponsible comment from a person occupying constitutional position. I personally met him eight times regarding the issue and he kept telling me that he was studying the matter. As a Governor, he could have asked for the required information if something was missing,” he said.

The Revenue Minister further said that Shukla’s tenure proved quite disappointing for the tribal people despite the fact that Schedule 5 of the Constitution gives a lot of power to the Governor for the betterment of tribal people.

“The Governor has the power to suspend or amend the rules of the state and the Union Government when it comes to tribal people. If he had suspended FCA as requested, we would have given land to eligible people,” said Negi. The minister said that the grant of nautor land would have curbed migration from the border areas as the youth would have found a sustainable source of income. The minister said he would take up the nautor land issue with the new Governor.