Arfat Khan
JAMMU: Making live show of mockery of physical distancing, an organised group of scribes have overstepped red line while projecting an official meeting of four senior bureaucrats and technocrats in a PWD guest house at Gandhi Nagar as private ‘tafreeh’.
Attributing the act as unlawful intrusion in the government premises, a senior most IAS officer said “With pre set mind to create hype, the overzealous scribes have not only caused mental agony but also create hurdles in a meeting which was chaired by Commissioner Secretary PWD.
Strangely, the dense group of cameramen were jostling with each other for video graphing a meeting of four officers which were sitting in a room adhering to the social distancing norm.
It’s not only unethical but also unlawful to barge in a government premises and keep hounding officers and search rooms, bags and kitchens like police, said one officer. Can media persons act this way? questioned another officer.
Expressing resentment one engineer said “This is an act of harassing government officers by misusing the platform of journalism”. The government should issued an order making it mandatory for media persons to seek permissions prior to their entry in government premises pertaining to video graphing and interview, he added.
They are just media persons and cannot be above law in performing their duty, said one bureaucrat.
There are meetings going on in civil secretariat and several government guest houses across the state. So, what was wrong in a meeting at PWD Guest house which was chaired by our Commissioner Secretary Khurshid Ahmad Shah and comprised of only four persons, said one technocrat?
It’s aghast to see that media persons forcefully projected the official meet as private dinner party, said a senior engineer.
The meeting was held as Commissioner Secretary who was retiring on Thursday need to review some tasks with officers.
Significantly, on same day at about 2 pm in the afternoon the District Development Commissioner, Jammu Sushma Chouhan also held a meeting which was attend by nearly 35 officials, revealed sources.
Then why only targeting meeting of Khurshid Ahmad Shah is not only questionable but also condemndable, avers another senior engineer.
Pertaining to eatbles lying in the kitchen, sources revealed that since in routine nearly 3 to 5 meetings were held on daily basis in PWD guest. To look after all this, there are nearly 4 to 5 persons having residential accommodation inside the complex who used this kitchen for peesoper cooking.
Ironically, even police has not taken cognisance of PWD guest house meet which the some media guys has blown out of proportion merely for the sake of hype.
Avoiding going on records, police officer preferring anonymity said “Making mountain of mole is exactly appeared in PWD guest house fiasco created by some over excited cameramen and reporters.