Patnagarh MLA Makes JE Do Sit-Ups In Kangaroo Court, Video Goes Viral

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06 June 2019


Bolangir: It is true that ‘Democracy is of the People, by the People, for the People’, but there is a ‘Rule of Law’. When there is ‘Jungle Rule’, ‘Anarchy’ rules the roost and the whole democratic system goes haywire.

Need to be quoted here the statement made by British historian, Lord Acton, of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Acton has stated, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

It is an observation that a person's sense of morality lessens as his or her power increases.

A glaring case in point is the latest viral video doing rounds on social media in western Odisha’s Bolangir district.

The video vividly shows newly elected Patnagarh MLA Saroj Meher issuing his diktat on a Junior Engineer (JE) of Belpada block for the allegedly low standard work executed on a patch of rural road.

The legislator is seen and heard ordering the JE to do sit-ups for 100 times in public despite the undone government servant meekly apologizing before the villagers who are standing there as mute spectators.

Even the relentless MLA is heard not sparing the JE. He is heard warning the JE to complete the 100 times of sit-ups within five minutes or else the public will start thrashing him.

"I'm the MLA and this is my order. I'm empowering the public to thrash you," thus goes his fatwa.

Even the allegedly erring JE is directed to re-build the entire stretch of road from his own pocket as he has allegedly squandered and siphoned off the public funds.

Later in the day, the district collector ordered a probe into the matter.