Jaipur: In an unusual turn of events, Rajasthan Forest Minister Sanjay Sharma staged a five-hour sit-in at the Alwar Municipal Corporation office on Wednesday, protesting the alleged delay in issuing appointment letters to sanitation workers and accusing senior district officials of being unresponsive to the matter.
Sharma, who sat alongside the sanitation workers, said 329 candidates selected in the 2012 recruitment process were still awaiting appointment letters despite a favorable High Court verdict.
He said the candidates had been making repeated visits to the Directorate of Local Bodies (DLB) and the municipal corporation for nearly 15 months seeking implementation of the court order.
“The district collector and the municipal corporation commissioner had been delaying the appointments despite repeated requests to complete the process,” alleged the minister.
Sharma said he, along with candidates, met the district collector, but her attitude was appreciable. “The officials should not behave as if they were above the people in a democracy,” said the minister.
Later the protest was called off after about five hours when ADM Yogesh Dagur and Municipal Corporation Commissioner Sohan Singh Naruka reached the site with five appointment letters. Sharma handed over the letters to a representative of the sanitation workers.
The minister said appointment letters for the remaining eligible candidates would be distributed on August 16 during a program to be addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The minister's protest, however, gave the opposition Congress an opportunity to target the BJP government over the functioning of its administration.
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Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly Tikaram Jully said on X that the incident had exposed the “true face” of the BJP government in Alwar. He questioned why a minister of the ruling party had to stage a protest against a municipal corporation controlled by his government to secure appointment letters for sanitation workers.
Jully alleged that the incident reflected the growing influence of the bureaucracy and claimed that ministers were being left with only nominal authority. He said Sharma had already approached the district collector but was forced to take to the streets after no action was taken.
