Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi urges one and all to end VIP culture the political fraternity is finding it hard to embrace humility.
One such instance has been reported from Madhya Pradesh where two senior officers of the Public Works Department (PWD) have been removed from the post and have been deployed to headquarters in Bhopal.
The incident took place on the night of January 25 when the PWD minister Gopal Bhargav reached the circuit house in Sagar to attend the Republic Day event the following day.
However, according to the protocol, no officer was present at the circuit house to receive the minister in accordance with the official protocol and this did not go down well with the senior politician.
As per reports, Bhargav’s staff had informed the district collectorate about the arrival of the minister.
The department soon after suspended the SDO JM Tiwari and Executive Engineer Harihsankar Jaiswal and deployed them to department headquarters in Bhopal.
When the media contacted the minister on the matter, he taunted and said, “Perhaps the officers were tired after getting whitewash done for long hours and dozed off and forgot about the protocol.”
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Sources claimed that both the officers were deputed by the collector to receive the minister at the circuit house but they failed to turn up at the venue on time which made the minister leave his hometown Gadhakota.
He however turned up at the Republic Day function the next morning and presided over the event.
PWD minister Gopal Bhargav, a senior minister in the Shivraj government is a native of Sagar district.