T R Baalu seeks to move privilege against chief secy

T R Baalu seeks to move privilege against chief secy

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  15.05.2020

A day after meeting chief secretary K Shanmugam and presenting to him one lakh representations collected from people, DMK parliamentary chief T R Baalu has written to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla seeking to move privilege proceedings against the former for alleged “rash behaviour” with the delegation of party MPs.

For his part, chief secretary Shanmugam denied having insulted the DMK MPs, while adding that he was only a humble government servant and not a politician. Late on Thursday, Dayanidhi Maran too wrote to the speaker and sought privilege proceedings against the senior most bureaucrat in the state. Amidst the melee, DMK president M K Stalin, who often takes to social media for making his stand public when not issuing a statement, maintained a stoic silence on the issue.

In his letter, Baalu said he, along with three MPs from Chennai, Maran, Kalanidhi Veerasamy and Thamizhachi Thangapandian, met Shanmugam on Wednesday evening after making an appointment. The chief secretary did not even bother about the arrival of the delegation of the MPs though two of them were former Union ministers in the UPA and NDA governments, the letter said.

“Unmindful of the uncivilised behaviour, we explained to him with patience. We requested him to take urgent action on the petitions. But the official was showing least concern,” said Baalu in the letter. While the DMK was concerned about the need to address the people’s grievances soon, Shanmugam hinted it could take months since his office was functioning with skeletal staff, Baalu said.

Responding to the charges, Shanmugam said he had huge respect for the opposition leader (M K Stalin) and did not have the remotest intention of insulting him or other leaders. As soon as the delegation left, he ordered immediate dispatch of petitions to the CM’s grievance cell and segregate the petitions official-wise and departmentwise. “I am an ordinary government staff, not a politician. My duty is to serve the people, and therefore, I never thought of ignoring or insulting anyone,” Shanmugam said.

Late on Thursday evening, Baalu alleged that the belated statement from Shanmugam seemed to reflect the “political voice” of chief minister. “Having had a long stint in state government service, we also respect Shanmugam. Our only concern is he should remain impartial when meeting people’s representatives,” Baalu said in a statement.

I am an ordinary government staff, not a politician. My duty is to serve the people, and, therefore, I never thought of ignoring or insulting anyone

K Shanmugam |

CHIEF SECRETARY