Times of India: Nainital: Sunday, July 01, 2018.
The reply to
an RTI query filed by a Haldwani-based activist has revealed that there are at
least 10 persons inducted into CM Trivendra Singh Rawat’s secretariat as his
staff members after he took over costing the exchequer around Rs 9 lakh per
month. The activist Hemant Gauniya alleged that this was a gross misuse of
public money considering that the state was grappling with huge debts. “No
other CM of a small state has such a big team comprising of officers on special
duty (OSDs) and public relation officers (PROs) working with him. What is the
need for so many people? This is a gross misuse of tax payer money. It is all
the more appalling considering that the state government by its own admission
claims to be struggling to pay salaries of its employees,” he told TOI.
The RTI query
was filed by the activist on June 8 asking for details of the OSDs and the PROs
employed with the CM’s secretariat and what kind of facilities they were being
provided including the details of their salaries.
The reply
came on June 15 in which the state secretariat provided salary slips of 10
persons. Out of these, four were shown designated as PROs, three were depicted
as OSDs while the remaining three were categorised as “Others”. Their
cumulative monthly salaries as per the reply was Rs 8,70,281 per month. “The
department did not provide any other details except the salary slips. Other
facilities extended to these personnel such as vehicle and fuel allowance, housing,
phone and internet expenses will make the amount spent on them much more,”
Gauniya alleged adding that “the presence of so many OSDs simply shows how the
BJP has adjusted people close to the party in the CM’s office at tax payer’s
expense.”
When queried
about the issue, Darshan Singh Rawat, media co-ordinator of the CM refused to
comment saying that “the secretariat officials are authorised to comment on the
matter.” Attempts to reach Harbans Singh Chugh, in-charge of the secretariat
administration, proved futile.
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