UP minister praises `beauty` of lady DM

Lucknow: UP minister for Khadi and Gramodyog Rajram Pandey has landed in a controversy by praising the "beauty" of a senior lady bureaucrat at an official function in Sultanpur, a move which has drawn the ire of Samajwadi Party leaders.

On Monday, Pandey, after distributing cheques to unemployed youths at the Kamla Nehru Institute of Technology in Sultanpur, suddenly went off track praising the beauty of DM, K Dhanlakshmi, who was also present there. Pandey said, he was lucky the district also had a lady District Magistrate, referring to the last time when Kamini Chauhan was the DM. "Mujhe lagta tha ki unse sunder mahila DM nahi ho sakti, par is baar jab main prabhari manrti hoon to (current) DM unse bha adhik sunder hain," he said. (I used to think that no other woman DM could be beautiful , but this time when I became in charge of the district I found that this DM is even more beautiful). The minister also termed her as, "Very soft spoken and competent administrator". Though the comment was lauded by the audience which was dominated by Samajwadi Party workers, the DM looked extremely uncomfortable. Meanwhile, a section of SP workers have taken the comment as indecent and sought a public apology from him. "Pandey`s behaviour would send a wrong message among the people with regard to the party and government," SP MLA Ravidas Mahrotra said. PTI