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THE BIZARRE STORY OF GAD’S ROOM!
Jaipur: A 36-year- long arrangement and history itself, has been changed in the Secretariat. In the room on the second floor of the main building, where till now the ‘Chief ’ of the Genera; Administration Department (GAD) used to sit, now new Principal Secretary of the Department, Dinesh Kumar, will not sit there. Rather, he will handle the wok from his old room on the second floor.
And the GAD room has been taken over by new Secretary of ECD, Jitendra Upadhyaya. Prior to the IAS transfer list, GAD Secretary Upadhyaya used to sit in this room and since Dinesh Kumar did not leave his old room on for the new office on ground floor, hence Upadhyaya also did not vacate the GAD room.
It has been learnt that both the officials have decided upon this on their own level and neither Chief Secretary, nor DoP’s permission was sought.
Prior to 1987, both DoP and GAD were one department and at that time, there were three Special Secretaries and the Special Secretary looking after the work of GAD, used to sit in this room. In 1987, a full time Secretary was appointed for GAD, HP Agrawal, who used to sit in this room.
From then, till now, in the past thirty six years, 41 ‘chiefs’ of GAD have come and all have sat in this room. Once, when in July 2014 Ajit Kumar Singh held the reins of this department, he had expressed his desire to stay put in the old room, but the then Chief Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi considered it to be indiscipline. After a scolding by the CS, Singh sat in the room earmarked for the GAD.
When Shikhar Agrawal and Bhawani Singh Detha were given the responsibility of GAD, they sat in their own rooms and this room earmarked for GAD remained vacant.
Only DoP and GAD are two departments in the Secretariat whose ‘chiefs’ have been sitting in the rooms earmarked for them and thus these rooms hold special place in the bureaucracy. Now, with the sudden change in the ongoing 36- yearlong arrangement, there is confusion and it is being said that the DoP will issue orders in this regard after speaking with CS and the CMO.
