The pitiful condition of roads in the country annoys people who drive cars, ride bikes or even walk on them. They often lead to hours-long traffic jams adding to the nuisance. At such times, we really wish the officers responsible for poor road construction could be held accountable.
An MLA from Odisha has recently done this for us! The newly-elected MLA, Saroj Meher from Patnagarh, allegedly made his junior officer do sit-ups in front of hundreds of people in Bolangir district. The reason?
The poor condition of roads in the district!
A video of the incident, where MLA Meher is forcing his junior engineer, Jasbant Sabar to do sit-ups as a punishment for not maintaining the condition of the roads is going viral on social media.
The officer asks the MLA to forgive him in the video but he says that the locals will beat him up if does not follow his order. “I am the MLA and this is my order. I am empowering the people to thrash you,” the MLA is heard saying in the video.
@Naveen_Odisha # Dabang MLA Saroj Meher # punishment to Belpara pwd JE# is it work of developmental process of MLA or inhumanity? pic.twitter.com/jeI1Xah3J1
— Bijoy Kumar Pradhan (@Bijoykpradhan) June 6, 2019
The junior officer then does 10 sit-ups in the video as people gather around to watch him. The MLA also says in the video that he is a taxpayer too and the poor roads are affecting him as well.
This happened two days after the MLA visited Patnagarh where the locals of Belpada village complained about the authorities and blamed them for the pitiful conditions of the roads.
Later on, Sabar’s wife filed a complaint against the MLA for publically humiliating her husband. Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Patnagarh Suresh Nayak said, “We have registered a case against the MLA at Patnagarh police station after proper verification. The case has been registered under different sections of the IPC and SC, ST Atrocity Act,” reports News 18.
After returning home, Sabar also alleged that apart from forcing him to do sit-ups, the MLA also asked his executive engineer to slap him in public. “The MLA asked my executive engineer to slap me in presence of all. The executive engineer might have slapped to save me from the angry people who complained of poor quality of road construction work,” he said.
Meher, later on, apologized to Sabar in presence of media and said, “I am sorry for the incident. But, I was compelled to ask the engineer to do sit-ups in the wake of public resentment… People were angry over the poor quality of road construction and they could have harmed the engineer if I did not ask him to do sit-ups.”
No doubt, officers should be punished for not carrying out their responsibilities well. But is humiliating a person in public the way to go? What’s your take on the entire incident?