UP minister complains to CM Yogi Adityanath: ‘Officers don’t listen to me’

A minister in the Uttar Pradesh cabinet has written to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, complaining that the officers in his department are paying no heed to him

 

Nand Gopal Nandi, the minister for industrial development, accused the bureaucrats of not following his instructions and giving undue benefits to people known to them. 

 

They are working in an 'arbitrary' manner, he alleged.

 

Nandi said the officers are making decisions on a whim at their own level, keeping aside all rules. They call for files and take decisions without referring to the minister in charge, he alleged. 

 

The minister also accused the officers of creating obstacles in work. They deliberately sit over files which should move in the normal course, while giving the green light to some other files which benefit those close to them. People are thus getting undue benefits, Nandi said.

 

Such complaints from ministers are not new in the Yogi Adityanath-led government. Dinesh Khatik, an influential Dalit leader, has on more than one occasion accused bureaucrats of not listening to him and of not even keeping him informed of the goings-on in his constituency. He once said it seemed that officers believed that a minister of state deserved no more than an official vehicle.

 

Now Nandi, who is an MLA from Prayagraj, has said that officers in his ministry make files 'disappear'. He complained that the instructions that he gave two years ago are still not implemented. H also alleged that he had asked for an inquiry in certain cases but never received a report. In addition, when he asked for reasons why certain files he had asked for were not given to him, he was told that senior officers had barred the same.

 

As per sources, officers in Nandi's ministry are preparing responses to the minister's allegations.

 

On October 7, the minister submitted through the CM's office a list of files that he wanted. He now alleges that the files are yet to be given to him.

 

Nandi's other charge is that his instructions for the division of work within the department have not been followed.

 

There have been whispers of a tussle between the ministers and bureaucrats in the state government. 

 

Opinion is split between two extremes—one that officers do not listen to ministers, and two, the officers keep the palms of ministers well-greased so that they can have a free run.

India