Palakkad: Minister for welfare of schedule caste and schedule tribe A.K. Balan has come down heavily on government officials saying that they were not compassionate about the sufferings of poor.
Speaking at the art fest for students staying at the hostels of schedule caste and tribe at Victoria College here on Thursday, minister said that the officials were not interested to address the issue of the poor and reacted like they were ill ('grahinipidichapoole') when a poor person approaches them seeking aid, the minister said.
He also made points in his speech that the performance of forest and revenue ministers of the state cabinet held by CPI were not up to the mark.
"I have told revenue and forest ministers to go about their work like Binoy Viswam and K.P. Rajendran (the CPI ministers of forest and revenue respectively of the previous LDF government). Officials need to work like former top bureaucrat T.M. Manoharan (forest department) and Nivedita P. Haran (revenue department)," Mr Balan said.
