The Chhattisgarh government’s last-minute decision to overturn the move to bestow state-level awards to a serving IAS officer as well as the director of the Ayurveda Department has brought out the bickering within the state’s bureaucracy, even as it has raised questions about the credibility of the many awards and fellowships doled out every year during the Statehood Day celebrations on November 1.

While Chief Minister Raman Singh and Chief Secretary P Joy Oommen were away on a foreign tour, state Culture Minister Brij Mohan Agrawal announced on October 31 that Bilaspur collector Sonmoni Borah, a 1999-batch IAS officer, had been selected for the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh award for his “outstanding services in the field of development among tribal and backward communities”. Similarly, another jury had also “selected” Dr G S Badesha, director of Ayurveda and Indian Systems of Medicine, for the state-level Dhanwantari award for outstanding services in the field of Ayurvedic medicine. Both the awards carry a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh each.

However, immediately on his return on November 1, the day these awards were to be given away, the Chief Minister received a spate of complaints about awarding serving government officials for work done by them in the line of their official duties. He then struck down the names of Borah and Badesha. “It’s wrong to give any award to government staff. It is meant for the people. We don’t want any such traditions here,” the Chief Minister said.

However, a section of IAS officers is fuming. “The same Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh award was given to an IPS officer Ramesh Sharma two years ago. Besides, Sharma is also a recipient of the state’s Gahira Guru Award. If IPS officers can get state awards, why not those in the IAS?” asked a young IAS officer.

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