Bhubaneswar: Odisha IAS Officers’ Association Tuesday condemned the Monday incident where Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan allegedly targeted state IT secretary Ashok KK Meena during an event.
Indicating Meena, the Union minister, in his address during the inauguration of National Data Centre in Bhubaneswar Monday, had said “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, don’t do this.”
A delegation of the IAS association led by Chief Secretary AP Padhi brought the matter to the notice of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and submitted a memorandum regarding the same. Similarly, associations of OAS and OFS officers have also condemned the incident.
Strongly condemning the incident, the IAS association in its memorandum stated, “In a democratic polity, division of powers between the political executive and the 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 should be guided only by the ideals enshrined in the Constitution.”
However, recent episodes in Odisha and other parts of the country wherein 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, the IAS body said.
“A case in point is the incident which took place yesterday i.e. 28.05.18 at the inauguration of the National Data Centre of NIC, Bhubaneswar, wherein Union Minister, Petroleum & Natural Gas personally targeted a senior IAS officer of the state government, who was attending the function on invitation,” they said in the memorandum.
Speaking to media persons here, Secretary the association Vishal Dev said, “Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister has personally targeted a senior IAS officer by taking his name three times. It is not welcome and it is uncalled for.” President of OAS Association, Saroj Samal also condemned the act citing that it is against the constitutional values. “Be it a Minister of the state government or a Union Minister, no one has the right to defame anybody in public view by making personal references,” said Samal.
This was not the first instance, earlier too, Pradhan has targeted Dhenkanal SP and Collector over the murder of a BJP worker.
Meanwhile, BJD slammed Pradhan for personally attacking the officers. “Not for the first time, Pradhan is personally attacking, misbehaving and threatening senior officers of the state government. It is highly condemnable,” said BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra.
Commenting on the issue, state BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said, “It is a false and baseless allegation and a conspiracy to malign the image of Pradhan. The ruling BJD is hatching this conspiracy to hide its incompetency.”
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