Bureaucrats fail to turn up for Andhra Minister's meeting, TDP blames EC

The ongoing tussle between the government of Andhra Pradesh and the Election Commission took a new turn on Tuesday, when two bureaucrats didn’t turn up for a meeting called by state Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, leaving the latter waiting at the Secretariat in Amaravati for three hours. The minister had convened a review meeting due to the drought-like conditions in some parts of the state, and had sent out a notice to the Principal Secretary and Special Commissioner of Agriculture on April 24. Chandramohan Reddy said that despite intimating them in advance, officials failed to turn up for the meeting. The minister waited for three hours, and finally left the Secretariat without interacting with mediapersons. Although the officials have claimed that they couldn’t attend the meeting due to some unavoidable work in Chittoor district, the minister has asked for a detailed explanation if the Election Commission (EC) denied them permission to attend the meeting, or if there was any particular reason for their absence. The incident comes in the wake of the EC barring Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu from holding any review meetings, because the Model Code of Conduct is in place till the results of the polls are announced on May 23. Naidu recently held a review meeting on the Polavaram project and state capital infrastructure works, which did not go down well with the EC. After the YSRCP gave a complaint, the Election Commission told the state government that it cannot hold meetings because of the Model Code of Conduct. Speaking to TNM on the controversy, minister Chandramohan Reddy alleged that the EC was acting at the behest of the Modi government at the Centre, and added that the EC could not stop any state government from holding review meetings which are important to the functioning of the state. “As per the model code guidelines, the government cannot formulate new policies but there is no hindrance in reviewing ongoing developmental activities in the state. Why is the Election Commission adamant on enforcing the rule only in Andhra Pradesh? One complaint from the YSRCP and the EC bans all review programs in the state,” the minister said. He also said that the officials have been intimidated by the EC into not attending the meeting. “It’s a constitutional breakdown. How can a state function without proper governance? The officials are afraid of the EC. They sent a letter to the EC for permission, to which the poll panel sent a copy of the Model Code of Conduct and asked the officials to follow rules. Even during the aftermath of the 2003 Anantapur blasts, the Assembly was dissolved but the Naidu government still functioned perfectly as the caretaker government without any hindrance for six months. So, what is this new law that the EC is citing?” the minister asked. Chandramohan Reddy had recently announced that he would resign from his ministership if the EC barred him from holding review meetings. “I will stop holding meetings if the EC can show me which rule of the Model Code of Conduct stops a government from reviewing its policies,” he further added. Last week, Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu lashed out at the EC last week for stopping his review meetings at Polavaram, and reiterated his allegation that the EC was working at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Why there are restrictions only on Andhra Pradesh. If there were rules governing the review meetings, they should apply to all,” Naidu had said.