Kishan accuses babus of toeing political line
The usually calm Reddy lost his cool and fumed at the callous attitude of Hyderabad collector Sharman and GHMC commissioner Lokesh
Hyderabad: With local politics overtaking the cause of development, bureaucrats skipped a crucial review meeting held by Union Tourism Minister Kishan Reddy here on Thursday. Their absence at the meet was apparently on orders from their political bosses here.
The usually calm Reddy lost his cool and fumed at the “callous attitude” of Hyderabad collector Sharman and GHMC commissioner Lokesh. He threatened to cancel the review if both the officials failed to turn up.
Having been informed of the Union Minister’s tough stand, the two officials rushed to the Tourism Plaza where the meeting of the district infrastructure scheme advisory committee (Disha) was scheduled.
Sharman had himself convened the meeting for which Kishan Reddy was designated as the chair. Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated the Disha committees to review the progress of various development works, both ongoing and proposed, with officials and peoples representatives.
The minister was irritated as the collector and GHMC commissioner were not to be seen around. He was told by lower-grade officials that the collector was busy with the vaccination drive. There was no response from the GHMC side.
At this stage, the minister lost his cool. “It is sad politics is overshadowing the people’s causes. I have been noticing that top district officials are skipping my meetings. This has to stop,” he said.
Kishan said he would cancel the meeting if the two did not turn up within half an hour. The subordinate officials made frantic calls to their bosses who then rushed to the venue.
Later, the minister said the Centre had kept 20 crore vaccine doses ready with the state governments and they should make best use of the Centre’s initiative and achieve the national goal of total vaccination. He expressed concern over the delay in providing identity cards to street vendors and asked local officials to take effective steps to implement the basti davakhanas concept.
MLA Raja Singh and other representatives attended the meet.