Bureaucratic blues

At a recent meeting with Food Minister K V Thomas, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda complained that the Food Corporation of India has not been lifting coarse grain from the state because of some quality issues. Though a routine affair, Hooda was very agitated about the issue. When a senior food ministry official tried to reason with Hooda, his plea was shot down. Instead of hearing his case out, Hooda said he has talked to the Department of Personnel to call back the said official to his home cadre, which happened to be Haryana’s capital city of Chandigarh. The surprised official said he was on a posting to the central government, to which the chief minister is believed to have paid little heed. Bureaucratic cadre has its own perils, as some would say.