The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : ‘Civil servants being embarrassed’

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Saturday, Jun 28, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

‘Civil servants being embarrassed’

Special Correspondent

Unconstitutional instructions given in States ruled by regional parties: Minister

— Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

brisk walk: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal arriving for a seminar at the National Police Academy in Hyderabad on Friday.

HYDERABAD: Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal has observed that civil servants in several States ruled by regional parties faced an embarrassing situation following unconstitutional instructions by individual Ministers many a time.

The Ministers left such instructions either deliberately or involuntarily but they were in the nature of causing inconvenience to the general public. The officers should refuse to take the orders if they were mandated to do something unconstitutional and not in the interest of people, Mr. Jaiswal said while inaugurating a seminar on ‘Emerging challenges in public order management’ at the National Police Academy here on Friday. Twenty-one Superintendents of Police and six Collectors from all over the country are participating in the two-day seminar.

Mr. Jaiswal made this off-the-cuff remark while deviating from a prepared text. He went on to add that the Ministers representing regional parties tried to pressure civil servants for short-term gains. He, however, asked the civil servants to accept that regional parties and coalition politics had come to stay in the country.

Mercy petitions

Speaking to reporters later, Mr. Jaiswal said there was no breakthrough in the investigation into bomb blasts that took place across the country. He said the Centre would require time to take a decision on the mercy petition of Azal Guru who was awarded capital punishment for the terrorist attack on Parliament.

He said there were at least six other mercy petitions which had to be finalised ahead of Afzal Guru. The disposal of petitions never took less than seven years as it was a complicated and elaborate process. Mr. Jaiswal asked where was the need to cry foul over the delay in dealing with the convict’s appeal as his mental peace was already shattered with the “rope hanging over his head”.

NPA Director G. S. Rajagopal also spoke.

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