Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh Prabodh Saxena, who recently surprised everyone by getting extension in service for six months just as the IAS officers gathered to bid him farewell in the evening in March end, is caught on the wrong foot this time.
The case in point here is of the Holi get together at a Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) hotel in Shimla on March 14, which was attended by 75 IAS officers with families on the invitation of the Chief Secretary for festival celebration over lunch.
The bill for lunch and snacks for 75 IAS officers and their families, and 22 drivers, was generated for Rs 1.22 lakh in the name of the General Administrative Department (GAD) of Himachal government for payment.
The whole issue ran into controversy when the bill was leaked to the media and a news story went viral on social media about the CS having sent the bill of the Holi party reportedly hosted by him to the GAD.
There was a lot of criticism by the general public on social media over the issue of misuse of public exchequer for the personal party. This made CS issue a clarification that the bill has been sent to GAD for payment because the get together was of the officers, not his relatives. “Just as the Governor and Chief Minister of the state host such parties on Holi, similar arrangements can be done by CS also,” the CS clarified. He said the people who did not have knowledge were writing against it.
However, this made the media dig out things further. And now the invitation message for this get together, which was circulated to the officers, is being published on social media. The invitation was reportedly extended by the Chief Secretary and his wife by name, which reflected that it was a private party not government.
Official sources said while there is no tradition in the state for the CS or any other officer to host any such festival get together at the expense of government, the said party was hosted by the present CS as a rapport building exercise to calm down criticism by the IAS cadre as his extension was already on way in the retirement month--- that too at the moment when the race had already begun for the CS’s post and his extension was likely to cause heartburns in the cadres.
Not to mention, while the social media troll on the issue has not woken up the political leadership to take action into the alleged misuse of government money, an inquiry is now being done to find out as to who leaked the lunch bill in the media.
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