GUWAHATI: Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga has urged the Centre to appoint someone with working knowledge in Mizo as the chief secretary since the Mizos at large and his Cabinet Ministers do not know Hindi.
Senior bureaucrat Renu Sharma, who succeeded Lalnunmawia Chuaungo as the chief secretary, had assumed charge on November 1.
Chuaungo, however, had succeeded Arvind Ray, a non-Mizo IAS officer of the 1984 batch. It could not be ascertained if Ray has any flair in Mizo.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Tuesday talked to Zoramthanga on the issue over the phone from Delhi, the senior CMO official told PTI, refusing to disclose details.
In an October 29 letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Zoramthanga said even as he was seeking additional chief secretary JC Ramthanga to be the next chief secretary, the MHA went ahead with Sharma.
“The Mizo people by and large generally do not understand Hindi. None of my Cabinet Ministers understands Hindi. Some of them even have a problem with English. With such a background, a chief secretary without the knowledge of a working standard Mizo language will never be an effective and efficient,” he wrote.
This, he reasoned, was the reason why the Centre had never appointed a person, who does not know Mizo, as the chief secretary.
“Whether it is the UPA or the NDA government at the Centre, this has been a practice since the creation of Mizoram.”
It is a well-known fact that in other states, a chief secretary, who does not know even the basic working language of the respective state, is never posted at all, Zoramthanga wrote.
Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre Renu Sharma was asked by the Centre to take charge from November 1.
On the same day, the Mizoram government appointed Manipur cadre IAS officer JC Ramthanga, who is currently posted as additional chief secretary to the CM, as the chief secretary.
However, Sharma assumed office on November 2, the official said.
(With PTI Inputs)