VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, March 24: The Jharkhand government and the office of the Governor seem to be passing the buck as to who was responsible for the purported insults of some of the MLAs of Jharkhand during the dinner hosted by Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais on Monday at the Raj Bhavan.
Congress MLA Jaimangal Singh alias Anoop Singh raised it during the budget session of the assembly. He alleged that former deputy chief minister and MLA Sudesh Mahto along with Lambodar Mahto and Irfan Ansari were not provided with seats. Further, after the dinner party was over the cop on duty, stopped the car of the MLAs to clear traffic for the Additional Director General of Police ML Meena.
Jharkhand Assembly Rabindra Nath Mahto on Wednesday directed Chief Secretary of Jharkhand Sukhdev Singh and the Department of the Cabinet Coordination to ensure that the MLAs are accorded respect and are treated as per the protocol.
Some MLAs wondered that despite more than 24 hours, the Speaker gave the direction, no formal inquiry or action has been taken either from the side of the office of the chief secretary or the Governor’s secretariat.
“I think that direction is not meant for us. That matter was raised in the assembly and I am not authorized to comment on this,” said Nitin Madan Kulkarni who is Principal Secretary to the Governor. He ignored answering whether the Governor House was a perfect host.
The office of the Chief Secretary is learnt to have yet not received the communication from the Assembly Speaker. But a top bureaucrat whined that the state bureaucracy was unnecessarily dragged into this despite it not being involved in the arrangements and management of the dinner.
“The dinner was hosted by the Governor House which made the arrangements. The protocol officer was from the Governor’s House. The Raj Bhawan officials and employees managed all things. Can we ask a host what is your menu, sitting, and traffic arrangements? The Governor House is such a small place with a single-lane approach road where if hundreds of vehicles arrive at the same time managing the traffic becomes a herculean task,” said the official.
The official said that if there was any mismanagement the same should be asked from the officials of the secretariat of the Governor. Sources said that before Meena two other IPS officials had left Raj Bhavan after the dinner was over. “But the MLA did not name them as he did with Meena,” sources said.
