A day after the bureaucrats gave a miss to the meeting called by him, Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said, “It is nothing but constitutional breakdown in the State. Though no rules or guidelines prevent the officials from attending the meeting, they did not turn up. Also, they remained incommunicado.”
‘Afraid of CS’
There were no guidelines from the ECI that bar elected government/minister from conducting review meetings during natural calamities. As per Article 166 of the Indian Constitution and 22 A of Secretariat Business rules, the Minister can issue directions to the Secretaries for disposal of cases. Also, the model code of conduct (MCC) did not bar the Ministers from attending day-to-day affairs. The bureaucrats were afraid to attend the review meetings as the CS issued memos to the officials who attended a review meeting by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, he said.
Mr. Reddy said that he sent a semi-official letter to Special Chief Secretary (Agriculture) seeking the reasons — whether it was due to orders from the Chief Secretary or the ECI — for not attending the meeting. In case they did not respond by Thursday evening, the matter would be taken up with the Election Commission. Moving the Supreme Court in this regard was also under active consideration, he asserted.
“In my letter dated April 23, I did not even say it is a review meeting. It was stated that the minister desires to have a briefing and discussion with the Principal Secretary (A&C) and Special Commissioner of Agriculture for tackling natural calamities due to drought and heavy rains,” he said.