India News | Maha Circular to Officials on Meeting Dos and Don'ts Irks Oppn
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Maharashtra government on Tuesday issued a circular which stated it was not expected of officials to attend meetings or tours of non-government members, parliamentarians, legislators, including leaders of opposition in the Assembly and Council.
Mumbai, Jul 21 (PTI) The Maharashtra government on Tuesday issued a circular which stated it was not expected of officials to attend meetings or tours of non-government members, parliamentarians, legislators, including leaders of opposition in the Assembly and Council.
As per the circular, first issued on March 11 in 2016, district collectors can seek a list of pending works from MPs and MLAs/MLCs who are willing to have a meeting for expediting the works.
Also Read | Srinagar-Based Urdu Daily 'Roshni' Sends Face Masks Attached With Newspapers to Raise COVID-19 Awareness.
The collectors can accordingly fix a day and organise meeting with officials concerned and also invite the MPs and legislators concerned for discussion, the circular said.
"The government's ministers have the right to oversee administrative works and convene meetings of officials or summon officials to meet and give instructions or make suggestions by holding discussions with them.
"However, the Leaders of Opposition in the Assembly or Council, who have ranks of minister, and other non-government members do not have such rights," it said.
"Hence, it is not expected of government officials to attend meetings or tours organised by such non-government members/Parliament members/legislature members," the circular added.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Council and BJP leader Pravin Darekar hit out at the state government over the circular, accusing it of making a "lame duck effort of strangulating" democracy.
Darekar said he and Leader of the Opposition in Assembly Devendra Fadnavis toured the state amid the COVID-19 outbreak and gave suggestions to the government based on observations made after discussion with officials.
The government, however, did not take action on the suggestions made by the opposition leaders, but is "muzzling" them, he claimed.
"This (circular) is nothing but strangulating democracy... but this does not mean we cannot raise issues. There are several other platforms too and we will give justice to people using those," he added.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)