Bihar govt. issues notice to over a dozen IAS officers

Bureaucrats had protested against arrest of officer in question paper leak scam

Resentment: IAS officers protesting outside Raj Bhavan against the arrest of Bihar Staff Selection Commission chairman Sudhir Kumar in Patna last month. File Photo

The Bihar government on Thursday issued show-cause notices to over a dozen IAS officers and District Magistrates, asking them under whose permission they left the headquarters to participate in a meeting on February 26 and form a human chain outside Raj Bhavan. The officers have been asked to respond within three days.

Protesting against the arrest of Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) chairman and senior IAS officer Sudhir Kumar in connection with the question paper leak scam, the State IAS association members had held an emergency meeting on February 26 at IAS Bhawan and also formed a human chain outside Raj Bhavan while a delegation had gone inside to meet Governor Ram Nath Kovind.

In denial

Over 50 IAS officers, including secretaries of several departments and District Magistrates, had participated in the meeting and the human chain. The protesting IAS officers had also met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and State Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhury to apprise them of the issue. They said that “Sudhir Kumar was one among the upright and honest IAS officers of the State”. Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, the ruling alliance partner, too had called Sudhir Kumar an “honest IAS officer”.

The IAS officers later passed a resolution that they would not take any calls, even from the Chief Minister, “unless it came in writing”. They even wore black ribbons to register their protest. However, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that he was yet to receive any formal representation from the protesting IAS officers. “Let it come and I’ll take a decision on it which will prove a milestone,” Mr. Kumar had told journalists.

Slapping the show-cause notice on Thursday, the State government asked them whether they “had participated in the meeting? If yes, under whose permission they left the headquarter and how could they form a human chain in the prohibited zone outside the Raj Bhavan on February 26?”.

Fresh round of conflict

“The show-cause notice served on IAS officers is bound to trigger a fresh round of confrontation between the State and the bureaucracy,” a senior IAS officers and member of the IAS association of the State told The Hindu .

Meanwhile, Sudhir Kumar was produced in a local court on Thursday which fixed the next date of hearing for March 26. He along with four members of his family were arrested from his home at Hazaribagh in JharkhandEarlier, BSSC secretary Parmeshwar Ram too was arrested.