'Aukaat' remark to truck driver earns IAS officer transfer within 24 hours

Bhopal, Jan 3 (IANS) An IAS officer’s insulting remark – “kya aukaat hai tumhari (what is your worth)” to a protesting truck driver wasn’t received well by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and the officer has been issued a transfer order with immediate effect.

Kishor Kanyal, a 2013-batch IAS officer, who was posted as the Shajapur District Collector, lost his cool during a meeting with protesting truck drivers on Tuesday and made the disparaging remark to one of the truckers.

A video of that incident surfaced on social media, wherein Kanyal was heard saying, “What can you do? Tumhari aukat kya hai?”

The truck driver, who argued back saying, “Hamari koi aukaat nahi hai, isi liye to lad rahe hain (we are fighting for our worth),” was thrown out of the meeting.

On Wednesday, Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary Veera Rana issued a transfer order to Kanyal and he has been shifted to Bhopal as Under-Secretary.

The government has replaced him with Riju Bafna, a 2014-batch IAS officer, who is posted as Collector of Narsinghpur district.

Responding to the incident, CM Yadav on Wednesday said, “Officials should respect both the work and feelings of the poor. Under the leadership of PM Modi, our government is working for the welfare of the poor. I am also from a working class family. This type of behaviour would not be accepted.”

The meeting was called by the District Collector to convince the protesting truck drivers to allow the supply of essential goods in the district.

The meeting was called after Yadav instructed senior officials to ensure that public life was not affected by the protests and the three-day-long strike by the drivers over the new MV Act.

However, things returned to normal after the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) called off its strike after a meeting with officials in Delhi late on Tuesday night.