Rajasthan minister Ramesh Meena, who stirred up a controversy on Monday after a video showed him publicly snubbing Bikaner collector Bhagwati Prasad Kalal for using his phone during a meeting, has now given a clarification. Meena said that the IAS officer was speaking and chatting away on his phone when he was having a conversation with him; hence he asked him to “go out”.
Calling the behaviour of Kalal “negligence”, Meena further stated that he did not listen to the matters raised by him at the meeting, and that he will demand action against the bureaucrat from the chief minister.
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“The event was underway and I was having a conversation with the collector regarding it. Maybe he had some work or was getting urgent phone calls. He was speaking on the phone and chatting away. So, I told him to go out if he had to speak on the phone,” Meena was quoted as saying by ANI.
He said that women of the district had raised issues about schemes like MGNREGA and he had pointed these out of Kalal but “he did not listen and was busy looking at his phone”, according to PTI.
He also asked if a collector does not listen to a minister, how he will listen to the general public and resolve their grievances. Meena claimed that Kalal had behaved in a similar manner at another review meeting held at Zila Parishad level.
The video of the incident that has been shared widely on social media showed Meena looking at Kalal, who appeared to be busy with his phone. Objecting to it, the minister asked why the officer was not paying attention to the conversation.
“Why are you not listening? Are bureaucrats so dominant in the state that they are not listening?” he asked Kalal.
Seconds later, the collector rose to his feet from the sofa without uttering a word. At this time, Meena said, “You go from here”.
Following the incident, a delegation of the Rajasthan Rajasthan IAS officers’ association delegation led by vice president Kunjilal Meena and secretary Samit Sharma met chief secretary Usha Sharma at her office in Jaipur. In a letter, the association said that the incident was unwarranted and humiliating, and called for appropriate action against Meena.
