New Delhi: A bureaucratic reshuffle in Orissa sparked a row with a senior IAS officer objecting to the appointment of a "junior officer" as the agriculture production commissioner by superceding her.
"I feel humiliated and ignored as the post of the APC is considered equivalent to the rank of chief secretary in the state bureaucracy," Rajalakshmi, a 1974 batch IAS officer of the Orissa cadre told PTI.
Rajalakshmi's reaction came in the wake of the state government's notification whereby Satya Prakash Nanda was appointed as the APC. Nanda is a 1975 batch officer.
She met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and submitted a representation expressing her dissatisfaction on Saturday.
Rajalakshmi told PTI that Nanda is junior to her by a year and was 14th in terms of seniority, while she belonged to the 1974 batch and was eighth in the gradation list.
"How can one function under a junior officer?" she asked. Rajalakshmi said she had earlier sent a representation to the government seeking her appointment to a senior position while the APC's post was vacant in the past.
"All the officers of my batch have already been placed in senior positions except me. Is it not humiliating ?" In her petition to Patmaik, Rajalakshmi had pleaded for her "prestige" in the IAS fraternity. "Let me live in dignity," Rajalakshmi told Patnaik during the meeting.
Sources said this was not the first instance of a junior officer superceding a senior. Earlier a senior officer had gone on leave for three months to protest against an act of "injustice" by the government.
With inputs from PTI
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