Bengaluru: Bureaucrats in Karnataka are upset with the state government with those who put in long hours at work anguished about the fact they do not even receive a word of encouragement but could instead be pulled up by the top brass.
Within a span of one week, the administration witnessed two episodes involving senior IAS officers, with the state government doing little to haul up those on the wrong side of law. In the first incident, additional chief secretary took her junior colleagues to task in the presence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his cabinet colleagues. This was followed by the attack on another IAS officer Rashmi Mahesh who has levelled serious allegations against her predecessor Amita Prasad and her husband and additional director general (intelligence) Ashit Mohan Prasad.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior bureaucrat observed that tough times for IAS officers began with then DPAR principal secretary Sanjeeva Kumar being pulled up by the state government though his subordinate submitted an affidavit without his knowledge to the high court. “His was not an isolated case. Prior to him, several officers were unnecessarily pulled up in public, but the lid blew off only after Mr Kumar was pulled up for no fault of his,” observed the officer.
According to the officer, Ms Rashmi Mahesh’s case was no different from other cases including the one in which two additional chief secretaries Mrs. K. Ratnaprbha and Mr D. N. Narasimha Raju sparred in the presence of the Chief Minister and media persons over issues like from whom they gathered information.
This was an indication that the present dispensation had failed win over the bureaucracy, and instead encouraged only with those bureaucrats who belong to the “Yes man” category. On the other hand, the previous government managed to take bureaucrats into confidence and managed the administrative machinery effectively, the officer added.
