Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Principal Secretary (PS) of jails Manish Rastogi, known for picking up a fight with other officers, has locked horns with secretary of the department, Lalit Dahima. His tempers ran so high that Rastogi told Dahima and deputy secretary of the department Kamal Nagar to get out of his chamber. When Dahima refused to get out, Rastogi himself went out of it.
Afterwards, Dahima dashed off a letter to Chief Secretary Veera Rana about the incident that took place on Wednesday. In the letter, Dahima wrote that because Rastogi’s conduct was objectionable that he would not be able to work with him anymore. The state government transferred Dahima as secretary to jails. The deputy secretary to jails presented the files to Dahima who sent them to Rastogi with his comments.
Rastogi called Dahima to his chamber and told him not to handle the files, as the department does not need him. Rastogi wanted to know from Dahima the reasons for writing comments on the files without asking him and said PS was capable enough to handle everything in the department. But Dahima replied as he was the secretary to the department, it was his duty to write comments on the files.
Then Rastogi told Nagar not to send the files to Dahima, who related the incident in the letter to Rana. Dahima said because the incident was related to the department, he informed the CS about it. Rastogi was the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister’s Office for more than three and a half years during the tenure of Shivraj Singh Chouhan as Chief Minister. When Mohan Yadav took over the reins of power, he removed Rastogi from the CMO and did not give him any responsibility for over a month. He was made the PS of jails and General Administration Department.
