Ramesh Meena publicly chided the Bikaner district collector while addressing an event on Monday. (File)
Rajasthan minister Ramesh Meena publicly chided the Bikaner district collector while addressing an event on Monday, saying the officer was preoccupied with his phone instead of paying attention to important issues he was raising.
Meena, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj minister, was addressing women at a programme at Ravindra Rangmanch while Collector Bhagwati Prasad Kalal and others were sitting on the stage.
During his address, the minister looked at the Collector who appeared busy with his mobile phone. Mr Meena objected to it and asked why the officer was not listening to him.
"Why are you not listening? Are bureaucrats so dominant in the state that they are not listening?" he asked the Collector.
The Collector stood from the sofa without saying anything. At the same time, the minister said, "You go from here." However, moments later, the officer returned to the programme.
A video of the incident appeared on social media.
The collector did not respond to calls made to seek his reaction.
Later in the day, a delegation of Rajasthan IAS officers' association met chief secretary Usha Sharma and handed over a representation against the conduct of the minister and demanded appropriate action.
The event in Bikaner was held to interact with women and review the implementation of various schemes and programmes executed by the department.
When contacted, the minister told PTI that the collector was constantly busy with his phone and did not listen to the matters which were raised by Mr Meena during his address.
"The women had said a few things about schemes like MGNREGA and I pointed this out to the Collector but he did not listen and was busy looking at his phone. He was also talking on the phone repeatedly," the minister said.
"A minister is pointing out something important to the Collector and the Collector was busy with his phone … this is negligence. What message does it give to the public? "When a Collector does not listen to the minister how will he listen to the general public and how will their grievances be resolved," he said.
The minister said that he will take up the matter with the chief minister and demand action against the officer.
He claimed that the collector behaved in a similar manner at another review meeting held at Zila Parishad level.
In Jaipur, a Rajasthan IAS officers' association delegation led by vice president Kunjilal Meena and secretary Samit Sharma met chief secretary Usha Sharma in her office and said that such incidents were not tolerable.
Secretary Samit Sharma said in a letter given to the CS that the Bikaner incident was unwarranted and humiliating. He said that the same minister had made despiteful remarks for Alwar collector sometime back.
The CS assured them to talk to the chief minister in the matter, sources said.
Meanwhile, deputy leader of the opposition Rajendra Rathore targeted the state government over the incident.
The BJP leader said that there was internal discord in the ruling party but now due to the attitude of the ministers, infighting has started with the bureaucrats as well.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)