Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A collector who keeps the administration on a tight leash looks helpless before the politicians of the state.
The Leader of Opposition, Umang Singhar, publicly called a dog a 'collector', but Sehore collector K. Balaguru kept mum over the insult.
Had some other person made such a remark against a collector, the administration would have slapped an FIR against him, but even the state bureaucracy did not utter a single word against Singhar.
Forty-eight hours have passed since the incident took place, but not a single officer condemned it.
The IAS Association, too, preferred to maintain a stoic silence over the issue. President of the IAS association Manu Shrivastava said he had no information about such an incident.
In August last year, Chhindwara was witness to a similar incident. When the Congress held a demonstration over the shortage of fertiliser and the collector did not come out of his office to take the memorandum, the Congress leaders gave it to a dog.
Because the collectors and other officers kept mum over the issue, it recurred in Sehore.
Many districts in the state are witnessing such incidents in which the public representatives of the ruling party and the opposition are browbeating the collectors.
The situation has come to such a pass that the collectors are either pleasing the public representatives or they are fighting with each other.
MLA threatened collector with punch in Bhind
A BJP legislator from Bhind, Narendra Singh Kushwaha, brandished a fist at the then collector Sanjeev Srivastava during a demonstration over the shortage of fertiliser. Seeing the mood of the collector, his security guards took him inside the bungalow. An inquiry into the incident was held, but action was not taken against the legislator, but the collector was transferred after a few days of the incident.
Dindori MLA flew off the handle
A legislator from Dindori, Om Prakash Dhurve, flew off the handle at the then collector Neha Marvya. Dhurve told Marvya that she was not supposed to be a collector.
He said the collector was not sent to each chicken and piece of mutton, and after a few days of the incident, Marvya was transferred.
