IAS-IPS officials on warpath in TN

Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service offficials are the warpath -- charges and counter-charges are flying, but not in public.

Meeting at Madras, where separate meetings of the district collectors and district police superintendents were held recently, the two segments of the state administration levelled serious charges against each other.

Though no names were mentioned, some district collectors said the SPs did not take them into confidence, particularly when they had to be kept informed in times like the caste clashes that erupted in the southern districts recently.

As if responding to the charge, one SP reportedly claimed that the district collectors were treating them with contempt, as if they were servants. However, he too did not have any explanation as to why the collectors should not be provided with all the information about an ongoing incident, for which the IAS cadre is answerable to the state government and the local population.

Drawing the curtains on the brewing row, however, was Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. He is reported to have advised the IPS officers that they, as per administrative regulations, fell below the IAS at the district-level, and should maintain the hierarchy. He said the collectors were expected to keep themselves informed about the goings-on in their districts. And that the SPs were expected to keep them informed, all the time. Otherwise, there was nothing like a master-and-servant relationship, he reportedly added.

Karunanidhi also advised the officials to keep the public informed about the government's achievements. The IAS and IPS officials seem reluctant to meet the media on a regular basis, and share information meant for the public.

The practice of bureaucrats not meeting the press dates back to the ''MGR era'', when officials were prohibited from being quoted in the media without proper sanction. Under the Jayalalitha administration, such ''rules'' became even more stringent.

The fact that the meetings have been called so soon -- both the cadres's annual meetings were held in June -- raised many eyebrows.

A quick re-look into the districts's affairs at the highest level, it is said, was prompted by the deteriorating law and order situation in many parts of Tamil Nadu, and also by the general complaints about the adminstration's lethargy.

At the IPS cadre meeting, the chief minister said that SPs would be held responsible for lock-up deaths in their jurisdiction. Likewise, sub-inspectors will have to pay the price for illicit distilling and other crimes in their area. Only last year, Karunanidhi said 75 per cent of the force was rotten.

He also reportedly stopped a speaker in his track when a reference was made to the frequent transfers of officers and men. That is an administrative problem, to be sorted out at the DGP's level, and not to be taken up with the chief minister, he said. Whatever be their personal problems, they all had to produce results.

Health Minister Arcot N Veeraswamy was at the receiving end at the collectors meeting, when he tried to intervene in the discussions. When a speaker said that adequate quantities of anti-rabbies vaccine were not available in most government hospitals, the minister said the vaccine was being supplied only to hospitals located in areas where dog-bites are common. Only Karunanidhi's timely jibe -- should people go only to those areas to get themselves bitten by dogs? -- saved the day for Veeraswamy.