From Our Correspondent
TURA: In a major deviation from government protocol, state civil service officers were made to participate and ‘supervise’ the felicitation programme for Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma and his cabinet colleagues organized by the ruling Congress party in Tura on Monday afternoon.
An order directing all Meghalaya Civil Service officers posted in the West Garo Hills district to attend and ‘oversee’ the political felicitation function was allegedly given out by the Deputy Commissioner Praveen Bakshi, much to the chagrin of the government officials who had to leave their all important work in offices to make themselves available at the district auditorium venue to be part of the Congress programme.
While some MCS officers were made to look after the reception, others were given the task of looking after the refreshments, something which should have been out of the purview of the state bureaucrats.
Some of the officers were allegedly given the duty of being stationed at the circuit house to oversee the dinner party for the dignitaries, sources said.
The felicitation programme was organized by the District Congress Committee and the Tura City Congress Committee to honour Dr Sangma and his cabinet colleagues on their successful formation of the government.
“The programme is sponsored by the district committee of the Congress,” claimed a party member who could not come up with an answer on the presence of several government officials involved with the felicitation programme.
Dr Sangma could not be contacted for comments on the matter.