Bhubaneswar: Hours after BJP MP from Bhubaneswar Aparajita Sarangi raised questions on heavy security deployment for 5T Secretary VK Pandian’s Bargarh visit, Odisha Congress campaign committee chief Bijay Patnaik on Sunday raked up the issue further by quoting an RTI reply, which he claimed said that no instructions has been issued to the officer to conduct such tours.
“The CMO said that no such direction has been issued to the 5T secretary, who is also private secretary to the CM,” he said.
Raising concern over the issue, Patnaik said that a secretary-level officer is touring the state in chopper, police bandobast is being made for him and a huge carcade of vehicles is following him. “I have also seen a requisition order issued for some school buses. Maybe it is for taking school students to the spot during his tours. If it being done without the CM’s consent then it is a blatant violation of the conduct rules,” he said.
“Who has given such rights to the 5T secretary? Why CM is not stopping him if such things are happening without his consent? There should be strict action over violation of rules by the 5T secretary,” he added.
The Congress leader further said the Centre should seek report from the state in this regard. “Their MPs have also raised this issue time and again. The central government seems to be under some compulsion and keeping mum over this weird arrangement in Odisha where a secretary goes to the people, representing the CM, and ministers and MLAs are pushed to the background with their roles confined to preparations and ensuring success of such tours,” he added.
Earlier in the day, Aparajita expressed surprise over huge police deployment for Pandian. She sought information from the Director General of Police (DGP) about security deployment level for the Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner. “Why should a person going to inspect development work have so much fear & ‘insecurity’?” she tweeted.
The BJP MP had also slammed the state government over the public meetings and official visits conducted by the Secretary-rank officer instead of the ministers. The ruling had then claimed that the 5T Secretary’s visit to different parts of the state played a significant role in accelerating development and ensuring transformation.
On Friday, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattanayak had also attacked the 5T secretary for holding grievance meetings at several places.
