In a shameless display of “feudal mentality”, senior officials in the Uttar Pradesh government, in a bid to beat the heat, made children “cool” them with hand-fans at an official function at Shamli district of the state, about 450 km from here.
The visuals of the function, organized at Hasanpur village in the district by the state Social Welfare Department on Tuesday, clearly showed at least four children - all aged between nine and 12 - standing behind each of the four officials and trying to cool them with hand-fans.
The function, according to the reports, lasted for about 45 minutes during which the children continued to “fan” the officials, who apparently were unmindful of the fact that their arms might have been aching.
The officials at the dais included the Principal Secretary, Social Welfare, Sunil Kumar, District Magistrate of Shamli Praveen Kumar, Chief Development Officer V.K.Singh and Chief Medical Officer of the district Lokesh Gupta.
Sunil Kumar, according to the reports, was there to review the progress of the projects being undertaken in the village by the Social Welfare Department.
What compounded the offense of the officials was that instead of expressing regrets, they, when queried, in this regard, feigned ignorance.
“I had no idea if someone stood behind me with a hand fan...I could not have seen backwards,” the district magistrate said when queried about the incident.
Praveen Kumar said that it was “very hot” and the local people might have asked the children to stand behind us with hand fans.
“We will look into the matter”, he added. A visibly cornered Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said here that the matter would be investigated thoroughly and the officials, if found guilty would be sternly dealt with.
“This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated...it is akin to torturing the children,” he said.
BJP leader Hukum Singh demanded stern action against all the officials who were on the dais.
