Chennai: IAS officers must refrain from expressing opinions that threaten representatives elected by the people, said Minister for Law, Courts and Prisons, C Ve Shanmugam today.
The Minister’s comments come after he received flak from IAS officers for accusing Health Secretary Radhakrishnan of having involvement in the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
On 31 December, he had said, “Radhakrishnan and the then Chief Secretary Ram Mohan Rao should be taken into police custody and questioned for the truth to come out.”
The Tamilnadu IAS officers’ Association condemned the Minister’s statement and passed a resolution regarding the same that was forwarded to Chief Secretary, Girija Vaidyanathan. In the resolution, the officers urged that the Chief Minister must keep his cabinet ministers under his control.
In reply to this resolution, Shanmugam today said that his response was only a reaction to the findings and doubts raised by the Justice Arumugasamy Commission over the mystery surrounding Jayalalithaa’s death.
The Minister asked the IAS officers to correct themselves. Meanwhile, a group of AIADMK MLAs and MPs too met the media in the city today and expressed displeasure over IAS officers.