The controversy came to light after Congress leader Pawan Khera shared on X (formerly Twitter) a circular by the Department of Revenue in the finance ministry that categorically asked to nominate officers of the ranks of joint secretary, director and deputy secretary of various services as 'rath prabharis'.
A row broke out between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre and the opposition Congress over the former’s appointment of civil officers as “Rath Prabhari”. A circular issued by the Modi government this month to its ministries has been widely circulated on social media platforms.
The controversy came to light after Congress leader Pawan Khera shared on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) a circular by the Department of Revenue in the finance ministry that categorically asked to nominate officers of the ranks of joint secretary, director and deputy secretary of various services as "district rath prabharis (special officers)" in each of the country's 765 districts, covering 2.69 lakh gram panchayats to "showcase achievements of the last nine years of Government of India".
The circular mentioned an internal order of the agriculture secretary dated October 14 was issued to other departments regarding showcasing or celebrating the achievements of the last nine years of the BJP-led NDA government through the "Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra" proposed to be organised across the country for disseminating information, awareness and extending services at the gram panchayat level from November 20 to January 25.
On Sunday, BJP chief JP Nadda took a jibe at Congress reacting to Khera’s post, saying public service delivery may be an "alien concept" for it as its only interest is to keep "the poor in poverty".
"It baffles me to see the Congress party has an issue with public servants reaching the grassroots to ensure saturation of schemes," Nadda said in a post on X, asking, "If this not the basic tenet of governance, what is?"
"It may be an alien concept for the Congress, but public service delivery is the duty of a government. If the (Narendra) Modi government wants to ensure saturation of all schemes and ensure all beneficiaries are reached, nobody who has the interest of the poor in their mind can have a problem," the BJP chief added.
Prime Minister Modi has set a target of six months to ensure the full saturation of his government's welfare schemes, unknown officials told PTI.
BJP IT department head Amit Malviya wrote on X, “Who said bureaucrats in GoI (Government of India) are not meant to talk about the programmes and schemes implemented? Should they just sit in offices and not be on the ground to assess impact?"
He slammed Congress and said bureaucrats are "duty bound" to serve the people as the elected government “deems fit”.