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| IAS officer asks Bani MLA to "get out" of his office; all MLAs stage walk out, House adjourned | | | Bharat Bhushan
JAMMU, Mar 29: Over an alleged incident of insult caused to BJP's Lal Chand by a senior IAS officer, all MLAs of the ruling NC-Congress combine and the opposition parties, perhaps for the first in the J&K legislature history, unitedly staged a walkout today, demanding an action against the bureaucrat and making it clear to the government that protecting him would be politically incorrect.
All the MLAs, excluding ministers, rose to their feet and condemned the incident in one voice. They were heard saying: "In protocol, MLA is placed above chief secretary. We will not tolerate insult to an honourable member of the House at the hands of a public servant.""We want action against him and this brooks no delay," they said. Earlier, as the House assembled for the day's business at 10 am, Lal Chand told Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone that he had been insulted by health commissioner R K Jeerath.
He said he Monday went to Jeerath's office in the secretariat to get an application processed by him in his capacity as health commissioner. The application had been duly marked to the commissioner by health minister Sham Lal, he added. He said the commissioner had a cursory look at the application and then very rudely and impolitely asked him to leave his office.
The MLA said though he tried to convince him that he could not be so discourteous to him as he was an MLA, Jeerath did not show any politeness and again asked him to get out of his office, this time more arrogantly.
Lal said when he later brought the matter to the notice of Sham Lal, the latter took a serious note of it and even spoke to the commissioner. The moment Lal finished his narrative, which proved to be gripping, all the MLAs, cutting across party lines, rose to their feet and demanded a stern and examplary action against Jeerath and other such bureaucrats in the state administration.
If a commissioner's behaviour could be so rough with an MLA, what it would be with a common man, they said. Condemning the incident, all MLAs stated a walkout and assembled in the adjoining assembly hall where all rushed to confirm the fact with Lal.Finance minister A R Rather was later heard saying to the angry MLAs in the assembly hall that he was very much concerned about the issue.
Though the speaker sent the MLAs a message to come back to the assembly, they refused and said they would attend the proceedings only after the government took action against Jeerath.
They said they wanted some displinary action against the IAS officer followed by his transfer outside the state.MLA, Bhaderwah, and former power minister Mohammad Sharief Niaz said Jeerath's response to the MLAs, who wanted to call on him with the problems of their constituencies, was never positive.
"His behaviour is very arrogant and he always tries to avoid MLAs," he asserted.
"There are other bureaucrats too who never take care of the protocol and insult MLAs by making them sit with their PAs till they call them to their office," Niaz said.Lal later reporters outside the assembly hall that democratic institutions had become weaker in J&K, while bureaucrats had grown stronger.The ministers, who were in the House, waited for over two hours for the MLAs to come back, but when they refused, law minister Ali Mohammad Sagar asked the assembly employees to pack up.Probably taking a cue from him, higher education minister Abdul Ghani Malik then announced that the House was adjourned for the day. |
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