Winter has truly arrived in the top echelons of the Chandigarh Administration as marked by a distinct cooling off in the relations between UT Administrator General S F Rodrigues (retd) and his Advisor Pardip Mehra. According to sources, both have not met “one-on-one” for around nine months now. The two, however, participate in their own respective official positions in administrative meetings, including Rodrigues’ public hearing sessions held twice a month.

But any queries related to the rift were stonewalled by both the officials. Mehra refused to comment on the issue while the Administrator’s office chose not respond to any queries.

As mega-projects, such as Medicity, Filmcity and the Warehousing scheme, run into controversies, they are many who say that Rodrigues did not give due weightage to his Advisor’s objections and advice.

The story so far

Advisor’s moves
Objections on Medicity
Mehra raised stern objections on this multi-million project, including the allotment of a huge chunk of land for the project at “throw-away” prices
Filmcity: recommends CBI probe
Mehra has strongly recommended that a CBI probe be initiated to trace the “underhand-dealings” of bureaucrats involved in the Filmcity project

Administrator’s moves
Inquiry against Mehra
The Administrator ordered an inquiry against UT Advisor Pardip Mehra on the basis of an anonymous complaint. The Central Vigilance Director has questioned the officials named in the complaint, including Mehra

Withdraws powers from Mehra to write ACRs
General Rodrigues issued an order withdrawing all powers from Mehra to write Annual Confidential Reports of his subordinates. The General’s move is being considered as an attempt to save his ‘blue-eyed’ officers from Mehra’s wrath

... contd.