Gujarat Confidential: Protocol Woes

Dediapada AAP MLA Chaitar Vasava on Wednesday said he will seek explanation from the forest department in Narmada on why he was not invited to the ongoing Van Mahotsav events being held across the district. In a video statement, Chaitar, who was arrested in an alleged case of extortion and assault of a forest officer last December, said the department had “broken protocol” by not inviting an elected MLA from the district to the events. “Regarding the Van Mahotsav held at Rajpipla, the forest department did not extend an invitation or intimate me. As an elected MLA, the department ought to have intimated me to participate in the event as a people’s representative. By not inviting me, they have broken protocol and I will seek an explanation in the days to come.”

‘BJP Event’

A citizen’s group in Vadodara, Vishwamitri Bachao Samiti (VBS), has demanded the resignation of Mayor Pinky Soni for “being a silent spectator” to the alleged “insult” meted out to IAS, IPS and other government officials at the Tiranga Yatra organised in the city on August 12. Advocate Shailesh Amin of VBS, in a letter to the district magistrate and Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) commissioner, alleged that though the event organised by VMC could accommodate 50 people on the stage, IAS and IPS officers were made to stand on the side while BJP leaders sat on the dais. Seeking a white paper on the expenses that VMC bore for the “BJP event”, VBS sought Soni’s resignation on moral grounds. Amin also said that district magistrate, collector, municipal commissioner and police commissioners are constitutional posts and “excluding” such officers from Tiranga Yatra amounted to “grave insult” of the posts.