New Delhi, Feb 5: Former minister and senior Congress leader J C Diwakar Reddy has ridiculed the claim of IAS officers that they had done what the ministers had told them to do and questioned if they were small kids.

Talking to the media here on Sunday, Diwakar Reddy said that it was not proper on the part of the bureaucrats to state that they had done as they were instructed by the ministers.

Meanwhile, Rural Development Minister Dokka Manikya Varaprasada Rao also faulted the stand of the IAS officials. He said that as the officials were stating that ministers were responsible for all the follies, they should name those who had violated the rules. He said that it was not proper on their part to pass the buck onto the ministers, simply because they were caught.

Stating that it was unfortunate that such a situation had arisen, he said both the elected like the ministers and selected like the IAS officials were expected to serve the people. Referring to the demand of the IAS officials that big fish were to be caught, he questioned if it meant that they had admitted to being small fish.