Centre rejects state govt’s request to send its two officers to Poland!

Jaipur: Most senior bureaucrats of the Rajasthan government, seated in important positions, taking crucial decisions, have conducted such an omission that their act has put the state government’s honour and prestige at stake.

This has basically happened because of the poor knowledge of the higher bureaucracy to establish contact with any foreign country without prior permission of the Central government. The issue pertains to the safe return of Rajasthani students stuck in Ukraine.

It was decided that the Chairman of Rajasthan Foundation Dhiraj Srivastava and BIP Commissioner Inderjeet Singh (IAS 2010 batch) will be sent to Poland and an order to this effect was issued on March 2.

According to the order, both the officials had to leave for Poland on March 3 and for two weeks, they were to stay in Poland to make arrangements for the safe return of the students to India.

The Indian Embassy was made responsible for their stay and local transportation in Poland. The officers were directed in the orders that they will have to obtain political clearance through an online request to the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India.

But as soon as they approached for political clearance, the Ministry of External Affairs immediately denied the request and word is that the Central government has even communicated its discontent on the matter. Knowledgeable sources claim it is the Union Government that has the sole authority to contact any foreign government and the state governments do not have such a right.

But in spite of this clear position of the law, the top bureaucracy of the state handled the entire issue in a casual manner, which has not only seriously embarrassed the state government but also the two nominated officers i.e. Dhiraj Srivastava and Inderjeet Singh, who, under state government’s orders, were all set to take off but at the eleventh hour had to cancel their plan.

Notably, out of the two selected officers, one Dhiraj Srivastava is already doing a wonderful job on the same subject along with the ‘pleasant face’ lady Industry Minister Shakuntala Rawat.

However, according to political observers, the Centre should have also shown some generosity in relaxing rules on such humanitarian issues and the Centre’s handling of this subject has disappointed the people of Rajasthan.