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‘17 calls, no response’: Minister Baby Rani Maurya pulls up Etah DM
Maurya was at the Collectorate auditorium to attend an event, where she was accorded a guard of honour. Singh was present at the venue when the minister questioned him about not responding to her calls. “17 phone calls were made to you. This is wrong and will not be acceptable. You should answer the phone,” she said, adding that she wanted to discuss arrangements for the programme.
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A tense moment unfolded during Uttar Pradesh minister for women and child development Baby Rani Maurya’s visit to Etah on Wednesday when she pulled up district magistrate (DM) Arvind Kumar Singh over his alleged failure to respond to her repeated phone calls. “I called you 17 times. This is wrong. This will not be acceptable,” Maurya is purportedly heard saying in a video that later went viral.
Maurya was at the Collectorate auditorium to attend an event, where she was accorded a guard of honour. Singh was present at the venue when the minister questioned him about not responding to her calls. “17 phone calls were made to you. This is wrong and will not be acceptable. You should answer the phone,” she said, adding that she wanted to discuss arrangements for the programme.
Singh was seen trying to pacify the minister and requesting her to move ahead to accept the guard of honour. Maurya accepted the guard but initially appeared reluctant to receive a bouquet from the DM before later accepting it.
The exchange took place in full public view and the video subsequently circulated widely.
On Thursday, staff attending the minister’s calls said the incident was caused by a communication mix-up and was resolved later. They said the voice on the phone was unclear, following which the person handling the DM’s phone tried to contact the minister through a landline but could not connect.
The staff said Singh was away on an official visit and later clarified the matter with the minister to her satisfaction.
Efforts by Hindustan Times to contact Singh were unsuccessful. His staff said he was in a meeting.
