Serving and retired bureaucrats in Andhra Pradesh are up in arms against a state minister's reported remark that officials who have no commitment to their work should be shot dead.

While the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers Association has condemned the remark and decided to take up the issue with Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, some former IAS officials have asked the government to book the minister.

E.A.S. Sarma, former secretary (finance and power) in the Centre, said Minister for Minor Irrigation T.G. Venkatesh's statement at a public function amounted to an incitement to murder all those who failed to deliver.

"It is a potentially dangerous statement that attracts criminal liability under IPC ( Indian Penal Code) and the local police should take cognizance of it and prosecute him forthwith. If they fail to do this, it would amount to dereliction of duty," Sarma said in a letter to chief secretary Minnie Mathew.