BHUBANESWAR: As IAS Officers Association of the State registered a strong protest against Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dhamendra Pradhan for ‘personnally targeting’ one of its members at a public function, the State unit of the BJP on Tuesday targeted Chief Minister’s office for using bureaucrats to defame political opponents.Coming out in defence of Pradhan, State BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said the Union Minister had no intention to hurt any employee of the State Government as he strongly believes in cooperative federalism and collective efforts in solving common problems.
“Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik only gives lip service to federalism, but always claims credit for everything happening in the State. If someone points out inefficiency or deficiency in his Government, he never shies away from using all the powers at his disposal to prove his opponents wrong,” Harichanda told a media conference here.Claiming that the IAS officers were coerced by the CMO to voice their protest against the Union Minister, Harichandan said use of Government officers to score over political opponents is certainly not a welcome sign.
“In a Government set up, political executives and officers are two sides of a coin. Imbalance between the two wings is not healthy for a democracy,” he said and urged the ruling party to desist from creating a division between the two.Since the Union Minister is critical of the State Government for its failure to bring desired economic development of the State despite liberal financial assistance from the NDA Government at Centre, the ruling party is always in search of an opportunity to defame him. The current incident is the latest in series, he added.