Yash Khajuria
Jammu: The high-handed approach of public servants is not something uncommon. One such example came to fore the other day at Raghunath Bazaar wherein Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) organized a ration distribution camp and failed to manage the event under the norms of social distancing. However, the Corporation quickly shifted the blame on invited guests and made them scapegoats.
The camp was organized by the JMC to distribute free ration among the poor and needy who are suffering due to lockdown conditions. It was obvious that JMC had to invite the elected leaders of the locality for smooth facilitation of the distribution. As per the version of people present on the spot and the pictures, everything was going on smoothly till the date police intervene. As per the matter spiraled, the public servants passed the buck on the invited guests.
It’s nothing secret about such camps being conducted on routine basis but, police made a point that the camp was violation of Section 144 issued under NDMA Act. Had it been the case, police must have come forward to stop all such camps. The high handedness of the civil servants can be gauged from the fact that the elected representatives of the people who were invited as guests by JMC itself were not only humiliated in front of the people by the police but booked them under various sections.
The indecent behavior of the police officer was sure to sore the invited guests and so did happen in the heat of moment. Had there presence been a problem of any kind then why did there were invited, questioned a person who was present on the spot. “The camp was being held by Corporation and police was also present on the occasion, so it was the duty of police to control the people from violating social distancing norms. Practically, it was failure of JMC and Police but they instead of taking responsibility made the invited dignitaries as scapegoats may be due to high headedness or due to some conspiracy at the behest of political masters.
When contacted, JMC Commissioner Avny Lavasa blamed the Ex-MLA and Corporators for all the mess. She said, “They trespassed and created the whole chaos. Police did a right job by booking them under relevant sections of law.”
War against COVID-19 which has been fought like a team and almost when India is victorious but incidents of direct conflict between public representatives and public servants is indicating towards biased and politically influenced moves by overly powered instruments of administration.
And this is quite visible and should be enquired since JMC is organising such marvellous camps across the city through its officials and what went wrong here which led to FIRs against public representatives. The question also arises here, will JMC officials organising the camp be booked for alleged mismanagement under same provisions of law?
