Departments Without Ministers Suffer Worst

GUWAHATI: At the fag-end of the financial year when ‘make haste’ are the keywords Dispur seems to be slacking at least in ten departments that have been in limbo after the resignations of the three AGP ministers.

Seven days have already elapsed after Atul Bora, Keshab Mahanta and Phani Bhushan Choudhury of the AGP resigned as ministers. The ten departments that were held by these three ministers have been rudderless for a week. The Chief Minister has neither accepted their resignations nor has he rejected them. At the receiving end of the present uncertainty are the ten departments. There are barely two months are to go for the current financial year when over 60 per cent of the allocated funds are spent. It’s high time the ten departments were brought back to gear so as to spend budgetary allocations on time.

This is not all. The State Assembly is going to be in its Budget session from January 28. The ten departments are supposed to face queries that need to be responded to. If the Assembly will get proper responses to queries in the ten departments is something that can be well estimated.

As usual, when any department is in such a crisis, it automatically goes under the Chief Minister. However, the Chief Minister has a full plate right now. He holds as many as twenty departments. How much time he can spare for these additional departments is anybody’s guess.

There are other problems as well. Officials of departments can meet their ministers as and when the need arises. However, when any such department comes under the Chief Minister as a stop-gap arrangement, such officials can barely meet the Chief Minister who can spare little time for them. Moreover, such officials, who feel cosy with their department‘s minister, often hesitate to meet the Chief Minister. If the Chief Minister does not act promptly to put an end to the current uncertainty the loss to be incurred can be beyond repair.

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