Refusing to countenance Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi’s recent order stipulating that the government officers attend public functions involving the ‘Head of State’, Chief Minister V. Narayansamy has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to direct the Lt. Governor to “stop running the administration directly” and issuing orders bypassing the elected government.
On October 23, Ms. Bedi issued a standing order mandating the presence of officers to ensure the solemnity of functions marking “important national events and public functions having the attendance of Head of State”.
The order went on to stipulate officers to RSVP attendance or inability, seating norms and even adherence to a dress code.
Terming this as “inappropriate, avoidable and impossible to implement”, Mr. Narayanasamy’s letter to the Prime Minister points out that such an order, if at all issued, should have been a circular from the general administration department as per the procedure.
‘Protocol followed’
According to the Chief Minister, all government protocols are followed and officers attend national and official functions such as Republic Day, Independence Day or Liberation Day.
“However, there is no compulsion on them to attend several day-to-day functions which are attended by the Lt. Governor or Chief Minister. This is due to the fact that on a single day, there will be five or six such functions…If all officers are dressed formally, attend functions and salute the VIPs they will be left (with) no time to do their normal and official work,” Mr. Narayanasamy wrote.
He pointed out that a few weeks ago, when a proposal was submitted to issue a circular making attendance at such functions mandatory, he had directed that the existing system be continued.
Ms. Bedi came out with the standing order on compliance of norms by senior officers with regard to attendance at State functions and public functions
The same day the standing order was issued, the Lt. Governor notified the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh about it citing the “non-compliance of norms” by some of the senior officers in regard to attendance in State functions hosted in the Raj Nivas.
The letter states that following the thin attendance at the ‘At Home Reception’ hosted at Raj Nivas on Independence Day, a directive was issued to formulate a Standard Operating Procedure to be followed for hosting/attending Government functions vide letter No. LGS/2017/243 dated August 21, 2017, addressed to the Chief Secretary. “Since the matter is pending for more than two months, in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 44 of the Union Territories Act, 1963, and the Administrator’s Executive Powers vested under Chapter IV and Rule 46 of the Rules of Business of the Government of Pondicherry, 1963, I have issued a standing order in this regard.”
Mr. Narayanasamy’s letter to the Prime Minister states that in spite of his reasoning against a circular, Ms. Bedi “to satisfy her own ego has now issued an order under her own signature making it mandatory for all officers to be present at all functions being attended by her.”
A highly-placed official told The Hindu that the bureaucracy’s estrangement with the Lt. Governor that began when she suspended a Pondicherry Civil Service cadre officer for posting a lewd video on a WhatsApp group initiated by her for passing directions, was now more or less complete. Some have complained of public dressing downs while several officers were devising ways to opt out of serving unable to work in an environment vitiated by the tiff between the Lt. Governor and the Chief Minister, he added.
“It smacks of double standards when the same person who has been harping on the need for officials to adopt field work issues an order that is a negation of a health work ethic”, another official remarked.