THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Almost two weeks after Kerala’s top two bureaucrats engaged in a tussle over reports portraying one of them in the bad light, the government is still groping in the dark.
Days after DGP K S Balasubramanian approached the Chief Minister and the Home Minister seeking action against officials for spreading wrong reports about him, no follow-up action was taken.
While the file on DGP’s leave hasbeen closed, the government is yet to look into his demand for action for spreading misinformation, sources said.
The issue came to light following a report that Chief Secretary E K Bharat Bhushan found fault with DGP’s trip to attend an international police symposium in Bulgaria. The DGP soon came out refuting reports that he violated norms and wrote to the Chief Minister and the Home Minister expressing concerns over these reports. With the issue creating ripples, the ChiefSecretary too came out with an official statement that there are no differences between him and the DGP and that aformal process of validating DGP’s leave was on.
‘’It should be viewed against the backdrop of the ongoing tiff between the Chief Secretary and some top officials. The government has already closed the file on DGP’s leave after finding that there’sno merit in the arguments. TheHome Minister made it clear that the DGP left for the symposium after obtaining permission from him. ‘’As the leave has already been sanctioned, there’s no need to regularise/validate the same. In fact, the government is caught in a fix as a major blunder has been committed by attempting to validate the leave.
“That’s why the file hasbeen closed. However, they are yet to take a decision on DGP’s demand to conduct a probe into the leak of informationfrom a file, even before it reached the Home Minister. That should be viewed seriously,’’ pointed out highly placed sources.
According to an official statement issued by DGP Balasubramanian, he attended the international police symposium in Sofia in Bulgaria from July 27 to 31 after obtaining all necessary clearances from the State and Central Governments. He said he had taken casual leave for a period from July 27 to August 5 and submitted the application on July 25.
The tussle between the Chief Secretary and certain top cops in the state is on for sometime now.
‘’It’s an issue in which two senior most officials in the state are involved. Now it’s for the State Government to take a final call,’’said a senior police official. Chief Secretary Bharat Bhushan and DGP Balasubramaniam were not available for comments.