Naresh Meena, a rebel Congress candidate from Deoli-Uniara assembly constituency manhandled SDM Amit Choudhary and slapped him publicly.
Meena also had scuffle with policemen on duty. He alleged the SDM had threatened villagers and forced them to vote when the villagers had announced to boycott the elections this time.
On the other hand, SDM and policemen accused Meena of entering the polling booth forcibly and of creating nuisance at the polling booth.
Naresh Meena already has 15 cases against him which he had disclosed in his poll affidavit.
“It's unfortunate that petty politicians beat up senior officials that too on duty and get scot free. Such incidents should be stopped and politicians should be dealt with iron hand,” said a senior a senior official.
A couple of days back, MLA of ruling party Anita Bhadel had taken on an RAS officer Bharat Raj Gurjar, who is serving as deputy commissioner in Ajmer Development Authority.
Bhadel threatened to beat up Gurjar and abused him publicly calling him names thief, corrupt and what not.
RAS Association warns boycott of work if action not taken
The RAS Association has condemned these back to back incidents where public representatives have misbehaved and manhandled RAS officers. RAS Association president Mahaveer Kharadi said that the association has given a strong representation to chief secretary Sudhansh Pant, additional chief secretary (home) Anand Kumar and additional chief secretary to CM Shikhar Agrawal and chief election officer Naveen Mahajan demanding immediate arrest of Naresh Meena.
“If arrest doesn't happen. We will go for strike. Not only we even officers if tehsildar service, secretariat services, patwaris and other government officials will boycott work. We have also got support from IAS Association, which has condemned the incident and demanded strong action,” Kharadi said.
Rajasthan IAS Association has also condemned the incident and wrote a letter to chief secretary demanding strong action against Naresh Meena. Association secretary Samit Sharma, in the letter, urged authorities to take immediate action to not only to safeguard public servants but also to restore public
confidence in the electoral process.
Incidents happened in past also
Two years back, then Panchayatiraj minister Ramesh Meena had rebuked and asked then Bikaner collector Bhagwati Prasad Kalal to leave the stage when Meena saw Kalal speaking on phone while he (Meena) was addressing. Kalal had left the stage after facing humiliation. IAS Association had then registered strong protest against the act of minister and demanded strict action from then chief minister Ashok Gehlot.
In another incident dated back to 1997, then irrigations minister Devi Singh Bhati had slapped then irrigation secretary P K Dev (retired) for black listing a company against the wishes of minister. An FIR was lodged and the issue was raised before then chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who had removed Bhati from the post. The case was referred to CID CB and is still pending.
In an incident which is altogether a reverse of the above episode, then ADM of Kota city R C Jain, who later got promoted to IAS, arranged a ‘good bashing' of then MLA Heera Lal Arya, who misbehaved and held collar of then Kota collector Dharamveer Singh. It is said that the MLA had to run for his life.
Apart from that there had been a large number of incidents where public representatives entered into spat with administrative officers of IAS and RAS ranks. But in most of the cases the incidents didn't turn ugly.
“Public representatives and administrative officers have to work in tandem to get the results. In heat of moments, sometimes they entered into heated arguments which should be be turned violent,” said R C Jain, a retired IAS officer.
Prakash Bhandari is a veteran journalist with over 50 years of experience. He has worked with The Times of India for 30 years and contributed to leading publications as well as international news agency AFP.
