IAS officers protest UnionMin’s comment

BHUBANESWAR:The Odisha IAS Officers Association has taken strong exception to the act of Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan who taunted a senior IAS officer at a function on Monday.Members of the association met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the Secretariat on Tuesday to lodge a strong protest and submitted a memorandum to him in this regard. “The IAS Association of Odisha strongly condemns such incidents and stands by all the State Government employees, facing such situations,” the memorandum said.

The Union Minister had said during his speech at the inauguration of the National Data Centre in Bhubaneswar on Monday, “No work can be done without the State Government. But that does not mean the name of a person will be replaced by the name of another person in the digital media. Meena Sahib (meaning Ashok Meena, Principal Secretary in the Electronics and Information Technology department), don’t do this.” Meena also attended the function on invitation.

“In a democratic policy, division of powers between the political executive and permanent executive is the bedrock of the administrative framework. Both the organs have to work in tandem to achieve the objective of creating maximum good for the maximum people and in doing so, we should be guided only by the ideals enshrined in the Constitution,” the memorandum said.

The memorandum alleged recent episodes in Odisha and other parts of the country, when officers while discharging their professional duties, have been personally attacked by senior members of political executive which is a direct attempt to defy the constitutional values.

Referring to the incident of Monday, the memorandum alleged that several such incidents have also been reported by the field functionaries. “This has vitiated the working atmosphere and has a demoralising effect on the officers and employees of the State Government,” it said.

Talking to media persons, association secretary Vishal Dev said the instances of senior ministers personally targeting the bureaucrats in the country have come to the notice recently which will have a demoralising effect on the officers. “We have registered a protest with the Chief Minister and requested him to urgently intervene in the matter and take it up at the appropriate level to ensure that such incidents will not be repeated in future,” he added.

Along with the IAS Officers’ Association, the OAS Officers’ Association, led by its secretary Saroj Samal, also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister on the issue.Several other associations including the OFS Association, Odisha Police Association Revenue Service Association and Information Service Association also condemned the incident.