The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) members in Odisha on Sunday strongly condemned BJP workers’ attack at the official residence of senior IAS officer and Chief Minister’s Private Secretary V Karthikeyan Pandian here on Saturday.
The IAS Association, Odisha held an extraordinary meeting here on Sunday chaired by Agriculture Production Commissioner Gagan Kumar Dhal. Association secretary Vishal Dev briefed media after the meeting, saying that it was decided that the association would present a memorandum to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi demanding that the Government take strong action against the culprits.
Association office-bearers would also meet the Home Secretary and demand strongest action against the attackers of Pandian’s house, said Dev.
More than 30 IAS officers were present at the meeting and they deliberated over the matter in a detailed manner, said sources.
GK Dhal said Pandian has been carrying out his assignments dutifully, honestly and in a diligent manner. So, such an attack at his residence, where his wife Sujata R Karthikeyan, also an IAS officer, was staying with their children is to be condemned in strongest terms and the culprits have to be arrested and put behind the bar.
Dhal said that attacking an IAS officer’s official residence is a dangerous trend; and this move is to intimidate and browbeat bureaucrats serving in the State.
The association members deliberated the issue and demanded strong action against the perpetrators of the violence and their instigators.
Vishal Dev, while condemning the attack, said that such an incident had not taken place earlier in the State. “We (IAS officers) stand united against such vandalism and condemn it.”
Senior IAS officer Surendra Kumar and others also condemned the violent incidence and urged for strongest action against the offenders.
Another senior IAS officer, Madhu Sudan Padhi, also called for stringent action against the .
Notably, on Saturday, BJP activists barged into Pandian’s official residence and ransacked the flower vases and damaged the vehicles parked in the premises of the house. Besides, they hurled cow dung and stones at the house, where Pandian’s wife Sujata Karthikeyan was staying along with their son and daughter.
The Commissionerate police arrested four BJP youth activists; and after their bails were rejected by the SDJM, Bhubaneswar, they were sent to the Jharpada jail here.