No clout, rue Cong MLAs

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 24

Resentment is brewing among Congress legislators over the non-redressal of their grievances, even as a section of the MLAs is upset that their recommendations on the transfers of officials are not being implemented.

Troubled over not getting the due respect, the disenchantment with the district administrations and the state administrative machinery — which was talked about in hushed tones earlier — has come out in the open at public platforms, including the Civil Secretariat and the PPCC office.

“I think we were better off during the previous SAD-BJP regime as officers would at least listen to us with respect,” a three-time MLA said, adding that instead of listening to them, the officers had started taking orders from their seniors. The worst-affected are first-time legislators.

Even the recommendations of the MLAs taken on names of SDMs and DSPs, taken by the PPCC office a few days ago, are yet to be fully implemented. “After all, we are public representatives and are supposed to serve the public,” he said, adding Congress workers “need to feel the difference in the regime”.

Unwilling to come on record, some senior Congress leaders from Majha and Malwa were upset over a recent statement of the Chief Minister about “no tolerance for political interference in police functioning”. The statement rendered them ineffective and inconsequential, they said.

A senior functionary close to the dispensation said, “It is wrong to say that genuine works are not being done. The CM’s missive to the civil and police administration is to ensure transparent and fair functioning, as promised by the Congress in its election manifesto. The leadership does not want Congress MLAs to behave as Akali halqa incharges.”

Trying to play down the statement of the CM, a senior Congress leader said, “What the Chief Minister actually meant was that nothing illegal or unauthorised would be allowed. Otherwise, the police or the civil servants are answerable to public representatives and they cannot escape their accountability,” he clarified.

Meanwhile, a group of MLAs from Ludhiana district and an MP met Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh this evening to air their grievances. 

Three senior Congress leaders, including an MP, today told senior officials in the CMO that police officials treat them as non-entities. They met the CM late this evening.