Haryana, June 19: The Haryana Government is yet again grabbing headlines for yet another directive. The Manohar Lal Khattar government has issued a new circular, that directs Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers/ bureaucrats to greet the ministers, MLAs, MPs and other politicians by standing up from their seat or chair, whenever they visit their office. Also, if the officer fails to greet the ministers, they may face action and will be penalised, the circular reads. For the compliance of the order, copies of the circular have been sent to all IAS officers from the Chief Ministerial secretariat office.

Along with greeting the ministers by standing up, the circular also specifically mentions that they should respond promptly to the messages and SMSes sent to their staff during their absence. Besides that, SMSes and emails, too, cannot be ignored. It further directs that officers should start working on their handwriting and the language used for MPs and MLAs in letters and messages must be extremely polite and their requests have to be heard patiently.

Furthermore, it says that public representatives like MPs, MLAs should also be invited if any government functions or programmes are being organised in their constituency. They should be invited well in advance, the circular mentions.

In a similar move earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government had issued such directives in which they had asked all government officials to stand up if a minister, MP or an MLA visits their department. Haryana also issued a similar circular in May 2011, which has been brought back again by the present government.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 19, 2018 01:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).