Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head Amit Malviya on Sunday backed the Centre in its directions asking bureaucrats to talk about the programs and schemes implemented by the government. He said that bureaucrats are duty bound to serve the people, as the elected government “deems fit”. Malviya’s remarks came a day after Congress questioned the appointment of officers of the ranks of joint secretary, director and deputy secretary as “rath prabhari” and wondered how officers could be used to indulge in “political propaganda”.
Congress leader Pawan Khera on Saturday shared an order of the Department of Revenue in the finance ministry dated October 18. Slamming the Centre, Khera wrote, “How can civil servants be ordered to do political propaganda for a government going into elections?” The order talked about the “Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra”, to be organised across the country for disseminating information and awareness from November 20 to January 25.
It said that officers would be deployed as “rath prabhari” (special officers) in each of the 765 districts in the country. Reacting to Congress’s criticism on the issue, Amit Malviya tweeted, “Just because five states are going to polls and general elections are seven months away, should we abandon governance?”
He said that when PM Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he ensured his bureaucrats went out in the field. Besides, BJP National President JP Nadda also hit out at Congress for its criticism.
“It baffles me to see the Congress Party have an issue with public servants reaching the grassroots to ensure saturation of schemes. If this not the basic tenet of governance, what is? Regarding opposition to a ‘Rath’ it is a fit use of public resources unlike using warships as personal yachts,” he said in a tweet.
Modi has set a target of six months to ensure the full saturation of his government’s welfare schemes, news agency PTI reported. The government will launch a mega drive Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra across all 2.7 lakh panchayats in the country to reach out to the beneficiaries and enrol them.
Source: India Today
