Shimla: Lip service about holding of the winter session at Dharamsala being an expensive proposition notwithstanding, it was a nice holiday out there for the senior bureaucrats, who not only got to take their spouses for a on the house tour, but the icing on the cake was a helicopter ride back to Shimla for spouses, children et al.
“It’s only a Hippocratic stance that some politicians and bureaucrats adopt at holding of the winter session at Dharamsala being a drain on the exchequer, said a senior officer.
While the house functions in its usual way, it’s a nice paid holiday for all where one gets to take family in a government vehicle, put up in a paid for accommodation and eat on the house and send the bill to the state exchequer, he added.
Another officer who had just got back said that while it took me a whole days journey by my official car to get to Dharamsala for attending the winter session at Tapovan, getting back to Shimla was a 40 minute journey by helicopter.
What’s more there were many others who along with their spouses and children returned back to Shimla in the helicopter to be back for the weekend Christmas parties.
Worrying about expenses and who has to foot the bill was least on the mind of all for it was a time well spent for most, he added.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
The helicopter ride for the top bureaucrats is OK, since the government comes to a standstill without them(this is what they think and preach). But at least their big empty cars coming back from Dharamsala should adjust junior officials and other functionaries to save the exchequer from hiring taxis at exorbitant rates.
The initiation of another Vidhan Sabha or two Houses in a backward and a small hill State was basically the sole brain child of Mr Virbhadra Singh. Interestingly his own MLAs and even the BJP do not want to continue with this burden and they talk against it in hush-hush tones. Nobody wants to invite the wrath of Kangra people now who have slowly started realizing its importance there in their home district.
The incumbent government when asked about the reversal of this expensive and “Tuglaqi Farman” decision of Virbhadra Singh, said, it is ready for it but now the demand should come from the people all over the State against this extravagant and wasteful expenditure.
There is an expenditure of around Rs 2 crore every year on maintaining the second Vidhan Sabha in Dharamsala.
The former Chief Minister who had tried to become the only popular leader of the entire State had lost elections in 2007 despite this populist decision.