Port Blair, Feb 14: The Member of Parliament has cried foul over the alleged move of A & N Administration to sideline him from important government functions. In a letter addressed to the Speaker of Lok Sabha, the Member of Parliament has demanded to take immediate action against the Administration for keeping him aloof from various important functions.
In his letter, which was released to local media today, the MP pointed out that he was kept away by the Administration from various programmes like the visit of the Hon’ble Home Minister, Mr. P.Chidambaram, from 21/1/2012 to 23/1/2012; the Home Minister’s programme for distribution of NPR Cards to the villagers of Prothrapur on 21/1/2012 at 15.10hrs; the Home Minister’s public function at Car Nicobar, on 22/1/2012; the Home Minister’s visit to Sippighat to see the submerged land and interaction to the villagers; A public function by the Chief Secretary, A & N Administration for the Bhoomi Puja Ceremony of the project for developing a 5MW Solar Photovoltaic(SPV) Power Plant to come up at Garacharma village, on 10/2/2012; A public function on the Island Kisan Mela held in the premises of CARI, Port Blair under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary on 9/2/2012; Smti Anshu Vaish, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of HRD, Department of School Education and Literacy’s visit from 9/2/2012 to 12/02/2012; The Commissioning of a newly constructed Water Treatment Plant by the Lt. Governor held at Birdline on 2/2/2012.
In his letter he pointed out that the Administration’s decision to keep him away from all the public programmes is made in violation of the instructions contained at para 3 & 4 to the instructions/guidelines issued by the GOI – “ Official dealings between the Administration and Members of Parliament and State Legislature as published vide OM by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi No. 1103/9/96-Estt(A) dated 29/10/1996 to be read with the OM No. 11013/2/2000-Estt.(A) dated 25/8/2000, which clearly states that “the Ministries / Departments should issue instructions to ensure that in a public function organized by any of its offices in any part of the Country, the Member of Parliament/State Legislatures of the area are invariably invited and entry passes wherever necessary are sent to them in advance to avoid any inconvenience to them in this regard.
The MP said that in the instruction it has also been prescribed that proper and comfortable seating arrangements at public functions should be made for Members of Parliament who appear above the officers of the rank of Secretary to Government of India in Warrant of Precedence. “The Ministries/Departments are requested to ensure that these instructions are followed by all concerned in letter and spirit. It may also be impressed on all concerned that violation of these instructions will be viewed seriously,” the instructions added.
The MP further alleged that this has been done “with a malafide intention to cause harassment, humiliation and insult to the lone Member of Parliament”.
