Ministers pass motion to make bureaucrats stand in House for a day

Nagpur: The state Assembly on Thursday accepted a breach of privilege motion against IAS officer Chandrakant Gudewar for not allowing BJP MLA Sunil Deshmukh to participate in a public project and insulting him. The report by the privilege committee has recommended that the officer should be asked to stand in the legislature for a day. It has also recommended that negative remarks be given in his confidential reports so that he is unable to get any posting as an executive in his career.

In a perfect case of conflict between the bureaucracy and the people’s representatives, the assembly unanimously supported the breach of privilege motion against Mr Gudewar moved by the BJP MLA. In the recommendation by the committee, it is stated  that Gudewar, the then commissioner of Amaravati municipal corporation, should be warned for directly or indirectly insulting or creating an insulting situation for MLA Sunil Deshmukh. “He should be made to stand in the assembly for a day till work of the assembly gets over. Also, for flouting norms about giving courteous treatment to the people’s representatives, negative remarks should be given in Gudekar’s confidential report and he should not be given any posting as an executive in the remaining period that he is in service.”

BJP MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar read out the recommendations of the committee and speaker Haribhau Bagde accepted it. The other members of the assembly also welcomed the decision. The official is likely to be punished in the next session of the legislature to be held in Mumbai. Mr Gudewar at present has been posted as deputy commissioner in the Pune Rural Development Division.   

In the report, Mr Deshmukh stated that despite being in the social field for years, the official did not allow him to participate in a housing scheme for the poor. “A list of beneficiaries were supposed to be sent for the Centre’s housing scheme, with discussions expected with the MLAs and MPs within the Amaravati Municipal Corporation area. However, I was not asked for this despite the Centre’s guidelines. The official sent the list directly to the state-level selection committee without my consultation. After approval of the scheme, too, I was ignored and the official gave statements to newspapers about my house being measured,” Mr Deshmukh stated.

In his reply, Mr Gudewar refuted the charges and said the Centre wanted the list urgently as there were no proposals under the prime minister’s housing scheme.