T. G. Venkatesh clarifies on his remarks

Says his comments were aimed at non-performing bureaucrats and politicians alone

Minor Irrigation Minister T.G. Venkatesh said that politicians and officials who are found wanting in discharging their duties should be made to effectively redress public grievances.

The Minister, who raised a controversy through his remarks against IAS officers, clarified that he did not intend to hurt the officials by singling them out. His comments were aimed at ensuring that officials and politicians who failed to discharge their duties should be made to function by “hook or crook”. His comments were aimed at non-performing bureaucrats and politicians, not those who were sincerely discharging their duties.

Willing to apologise

The IAS Officers Association has strongly condemned the Minister’s comments, terming them “derogatory”. “I am prepared to salute those working sincerely and ready to apologise to the officials who discharge their duties in time to alleviate the sufferings of poor and needy,” he said.

Unlike an engineer who joins duty as an assistant engineer and ends up being designated chief engineer after serving 30-odd years, IAS officials would get grades every year.

“We tend to get irritated and burst out when farmers threaten to consume pesticide if the works are not done in time,” Mr. Venkatesh told reporters here on Sunday.

The Minister recalled how he visited the chambers of an IAS officer seeking his cooperation in timely completion of repairs to tanks, ahead of the onset of monsoon to ensure that farmers were not denied water. “I have the powers to summon them (officials), but I personally waited in their cabins to convince them to take up works at the earliest,” he said.