NRI, environment, DNT departments have skeleton staff, no work
Bhopal: Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is enthusiastically working for the creation of the Happiness department in the State.
But the state of affairs in the already existing departments is not very encouraging.
Chouhan, at a recent meeting directed officials of CM Secretariat to draw up the broad contours of the happiness department. Yoga Guru Jaggi Vasudev had suggested Chouhan to constitute this department. What the department will do is still undecided but what has been decided is that it would function in coordination with other departments.
The state government had created several new departments in the past but they have not yet started functioning as they do not have any cadre. As there is no staff, these departments exist only on papers.
Chouhan, during his US tour last year, had announced creation of Non-Resident Indians (NRI) department. The department has SK Mishra as principal secretary and only one employee, who are on the verge of retirement. The department has not done any work in the last around one-and-a-half-year.
Then there is a department for de-notified and nomadic tribes. The department was created five years back but it had no cadre at Mantralaya and district levels. It is held by all officers an additional charge. The situation is the same vis-à-vis environment department, which was formed in the recent past.
It has little to do. There is no staff for this department at Mantralaya and its principal secretary is Malaya Shrivastava. Shrivastava has written to general administration department (GAD) to give charge of the department to some other officer. Religious affairs department also shares the same story. Its principal secretary Manoj Shrivastava has tried on many occasions to streamline its cadre and get personnel appointed but to no avail.
