Regional Journal: Untold stories from the states

Black sheep

Punjab Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan created quite a furore last month when he asked the Home Department to prepare a list of “black sheep” in the Police Department. And so the Home Department asked the Police Department to furnish the requisite details. Except that no such list has still been prepared. Officials acknowledge that this is because there is no legal definition of who constitutes a “black sheep” in a government department. They added that the government already has lists of policemen booked in different cases. But until those are proven guilty in a court of law, they cannot be labeled as “black sheep” or anything else in an official document.

Tunnel tax?

The Atal Tunnel, which connects Manali with Lahaul and Spiti, has provided critical access to remote areas of Himachal Pradesh. The advantages are clearly many, but Himachal Pradesh’s Agriculture Minister Chander Kumar is not so happy. Kumar recently argued that the tunnel, in fact, is contributing to loss of revenue in the hill state, because traders from outside the state are directly reaching farmers in Lahaul and Spiti to buy produce like peas and potatoes. Earlier, he said, they were forced to buy from mandis which paid a tax to the state marketing board. The market-unfriendly Agriculture Minister has now asked officials to explore if some tax/fee could be levied on vehicles who use the tunnel to take goods outside.

Divided unity

In Punjab, rice millers associations, farmer unions and commission agents (arhtiyas) recently came together to jointly demand a better deal from the government in the paddy procurement process. But when the government called a meeting of all the groups on the first day of their unified command, several differences came to the fore. The leader of one arhtiya group, Ravinder Singh Cheema, lamented in a press conference that only the “sarkari” association has been called for the meeting. His intended target, the leader of the other union, Vijay Kalra, who was also sitting on the stage but on one corner, retorted that had he been “sarkari,” he would not have had to endure Income Tax raids in 2021, when his association supported the farmers against the Centre’s three farm laws. The open squabble became volatile when camera-persons tried to persuade Kalra to leave his corner chair and come and sit in the centre — except that Cheema refused to vacate his chair for Kalra. It was left to Bharat Bhushan Binta of the Punjab Rice Industry Association to save the day for the joint forum by offering his chair to Kalra.

Anonymity pays

Anonymity seems to be paying rich dividends to the new Sub-Divisional Magistrate in Abohar. A 2022 Punjab cadre IAS officer, Krishna Pal Rajpoot was posted here on September 27 and he has dived straight into the panchayat elections. But because he is so new and prefers to wear the cloak of anonymity, very few recognise him — he saunters in and out of local government offices without any airs and the election staff often has no clue that they are dealing with an IAS officer. This way, a number of shortcomings in the election process have been ironed out before they become big problems. Rajpoot is refreshingly open about his humble background His grandfather, Nathu Ram Rajpoot, was a farmer and his mother, Mamta, an anganwadi assistant; his father, Ram Kumar Rajput, was a lawyer. The family belongs to Neguwan village in Madhya Pradesh.

Champion donor

Fazilka-based NGO Shri Ram Kripa Sewa Sangh Welfare Society has for the third time bagged the state’s first prize for providing the most blood units to government organisations over 2023–24. The NGO provided 6,672 units to blood banks of Faridkot Medical College, AIIMS Bathinda, and civil hospitals in Fazilka and Abohar. Blood donation mission in-charge Rajiv Kukreja says that since 2008, the society has the credit of providing 40,000-50,000 units of blood so far in 15 years and has won eight state awards so far.

Poll woes

The panchayat polls have brought the functioning of many government departments to a grinding halt, as staff has been deputed on election duty. Staff at the Department of Housing in the Punjab Government have put on record that “public dealing” cases have not been cleared because of poll duty. While in the Education Department, where 80 per cent of teachers are on poll duty, students seem to be enjoying an unofficial holiday atmosphere in the schools.