Amid the coronavirus outbreak in India, a bitter episode has unfolded in the National Capital Region. A Noida District Magistrate sought a three-month sabbatical immediately after he was reprimanded in public by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, CNN News 18 has reported.
BN Singh, who is a 2009 batch IAS officer, asked for a long leave after after a meeting with the chief minister in Noida, where he was schooled for not being committed to fulfilling his responsibilities.
The meeting in question had been convened by Adityanath to address worrying concerns over containing the spread of the virus, especially with at least 30 COVID-19 positive cases being reported from Noida alone.
The meeting had begun on a sour note with Yogi Adityanath pulling up babus for their handling of the outbreak and the consequent migrant labour crisis. BN Singh was one of the babus present.
Not making any attempt to mince his words, Adityanath told the bureaucrats, “
Bakwaas bandh karo; Bakwas karke mahaul kharab kiya aap logo ne (Stop this nonsense; the situation has worsened because of you all).
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He accused them for shifting the blame on to each other instead of getting concrete work done.
Reacting to this, Singh said, “I have done what I could; I cannot do anything more. Please let me go on leave.” He reportedly sought the leave to go home for personal reasons.
An order for his transfer has already been passed and departmental action will also be initiated against him.
Before his time as the District Magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar, Singh was the Additional Resident Commissioner of Uttar Pradesh government in New Delhi.
He had also been associated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Delhi Development Authority, Greater Noida Development Authority, and Municipal Corporation of Delhi in the past.