Shimla, February 17 Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Tuesday acknowledged the increasing tendency of officials to ignore the telephone calls of elected representatives.
Describing this behaviour as arbitrary and serious, he asked the MLAs to provide the names of such officials so that action can be initiated against them under Assembly rules.
The issue was raised by Congress MLA from Gagret, Rakesh Kalia, during the Question Hour.
"Neither do some officials answer the calls of MLAs enquiring about public works, nor do they return the calls," Kalia said.
Both opposition and ruling party legislators have raised the issue of officials' high-handedness and failure to answer calls, he said.
The MLA from Gagret requested the government to stop the telephone allowance given to officials who do not answer the calls of elected representatives, and threatened to stage protests outside the offices of such officials if the government did not immediately curb this practice.
The issue raised by Kalia was supported by both the ruling and opposition MLAs, who slammed their desks in support.
Describing the issue as "extremely serious" and demanding immediate attention, Speaker Pathania directed Kalia to submit the names of such officials to the Assembly Secretariat so that action could be taken against them.
Pathania said he was taking cognizance of the matter and asked the MLAs to provide the names of officials who failed to answer the calls of public representatives.