Ministers don’t fail to give due respect to senior bureaucrats

Bhubaneswar, June 13(Reporters Today Bureau): It not always correct to say that Ministers are arrogant. It is also not correct to say that they don’t give a damn to bureaucrats. It is the training of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to his party men that due respect need to be given to the deserving people–what we normally call is Sanskar.

Only recently, the new Rural Development Minister Pritiranjan Ghadei was reviewing his department’s activities after taking charge. Development Commissioner PK Jena was briefing the Minister at the meeting. As per protocol it is always the Minister who is seated in the ‘prominent’ place during a meeting. But Ghadei broke the protocol and made the Development Commissioner seat at the place which normally he should have occupied. It  was a really pleasant sight.

It is pertinent to note that Ghadei is no less qualified–An engineer with a management degree. But he is cultured enough not to ignore the status, age and qualification of the Development Commissioner of the State. He also knows it well that the bureaucrats are perhaps the most competent persons to guide a Minister to implement the policies of any government successfully.

Further, Ghadei’s upbringing too matters. Son of seasoned soft spoken BJD leader and former minister Prafulla Ghadei, Pritiranjan has in his genes the ‘sanskar’ to respect and learn from people who are more qualified than him.