Amid the ongoing turf war between the Cabinet minister Rekha Arya and a secretary of her department, Cabinet minister Subodh Uniyal said on Saturday that the officers should work within their constitutional limits. He said that the executive should execute the orders and should refrain from taking decisions on their own. The minister also added that the ministers should understand how to rein the horse (read Bureaucracy).

The statement of Uniyal shows that he has come in support of his cabinet colleague Rekha Arya. It also shows that the ministers are increasingly getting irked by the behaviour of the bureaucrats who are acting on their own.

A war of wits started between Arya and the secretary and Commissioner of Food and Civil Supplies Department Sachin Kurve when the latter transferred six District Supplies Officers (DSO). He had also sent DSO of Nainital Manoj Barman on compulsory leave.

These transfers annoyed the minister Arya as they were done without taking her into confidence. The minister also ordered cancellation of these transfers and wrote  a strongly worded letter to the commissioner. She also took the matter to the Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and said that the action of the commissioner is an infringement on her authority and is against the rules of business. She also added that the commissioner should be sent to LBS academy Mussoorie for training.

Kurve on his part is maintaining that he is well within his powers to transfer the officers of the department. He added that the transfers act clearly mentions that there is no need to take the permission of the minister in transfers.

The ball is now in the court of the CM who is likely to intervene in the row and take action