Madhya Pradesh: 300 officials on mass leave after minister's kin 'threatens' janpad CEO

Bhopal: Three hundred chief executive officers (CEO) of janpad panchayats went on two-day mass leave on November 7 to protest against alleged “threat” to the CEO of Sheopur janpad by a relative of animal husbandry minister Lakhan Singh Yadav.

Janpad CEOs held protests across the state on Thursday and presented memorandums to district collectors, seeking protection.

Sheopur janpad CEO Joshua Peter said that an FIR has been registered against Sanjay Yadav, a nephew of the minister and Youth Congress leader, and Ankit Mudgal, his friend. “They should be arrested. We also demand implementation of protection act law for CEOs,” says the memorandum submitted to collectors.

Bhupesh Gupta, state president of the association, said, “Janpad CEOs are working under stress, and there have been several attacks on them in the past five years. We need protection.” Janpad panchayat CEOs are of the rank of joint and deputy commissioner of rural development department.

In the last three days, three cases of intimidation of government officials have been reported. On November 5, Sanjay and Ankit had allegedly called and pressured the CEO of Sheopur janpad to clear the bills of a contractor. On Wednesday, Santram Sironiya, husband of Congress MLA Raksha Sironiya, allegedly snatched the mobile phone of Datia SDM J P Gupta when he was recording Santram’s “unruly behaviour”. Gupta said that Sironiya was exerting pressure on him to release an overloaded tractor trolley of Ajay Shukla, another Congress leader. “When I did not release the trolley, Sironiya started misbehaving with me publicly. So, I started recording it on my mobile,” he told the district collector while submitting a memorandum on Thursday. The MLA’s husband was later booked for creating hurdles in government work, threat to injure a public servant and insult to create breach of peace.

On Wednesday itself, BSP MLA from Damoh Rambai allegedly misbehaved with district treasury officer Vivek Gharoo. After the incident, Ghroo filed a complaint with the collector and handed him ‘visual evidence’ of the whole episode. Though he lodged a police complaint, an FIR was not lodged. Rambai has denied the allegations.