UP govt slams IAS officer for using media to flay administration

The Mayawati government on Tuesday slammed a lady Indian Administrative Services officer for issuing a statement against the state administration after she was suspended for violation of service rules.

Promila Shankar, an officer of the 1976 batch of the elite civil service, was charged of undertaking a series of private foreign trips without seeking permission of the Uttar Pradesh government.

In her representation to the Union government she had alleged that she was being victimised by the state government simply because she had refused to turn a blind eye to certain violations of the National Capital Region Plan 2021 in the proposed urbanisation along the Yamuna Expressway.

While Shankar had made a representation to the Union government's department of personnel, the state government has taken serious view of the fact that the contents of the representation appeared in a section of the media in Lucknow on Tuesday.

"The officer committed serious violation of the service rules by taking private trips to Canada, Bangladesh, Sweden, South Africa and Sri Lanka between September 2010 and September 2011, without seeking the mandatory permission of the state government, for which disciplinary proceedings were initiated against her," said a UP government spokesperson.

"The officer simply took casual leave and left the country, which is just not permitted by the same rules which she has cited in her representation to the centre," the spokesperson pointed out.

"After all, when a senior officer of 1976 batch commits such violation, it sets a wrong precedent", he added.

On the other hand , Shankar had charged the Mayawati government of "unleashing a reign of terror on the officers who spoke their mind on files."

Sending copies of her representation to Union Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth as well as to Principal Secretary to prime minister Pulok Chatterjee, she has sought to point out, "It is the responsibility of the government of India to protect the morale of officers belonging to all India services. They cannot and should not remain mute spectators when its members are being trampled upon in performance of their duty."