THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The current face-off between the government and the Secretariat employees over the Pinarayi Vijayan Government’s unilateral decision to introduce the Kerala Administrative Service (KAS) has now come to the fore. And it was the government move to seek a report on the purported slowdown in file movement which deepened the fault lines.
Long before the government came out with the in-principle order in January to introduce the KAS, the IAS Association was at loggerheads with the government over the Vigilance Department framing Additional Chief Secretary Paul Antony in the nepotism case pertaining to ousted Industries Minister E P Jayarajan. There were reports of senior IAS officers and sizeable number of Secretariat employees sitting on the files following the cold war with the government.
It was in the wake of such reports that Additional Chief Secretary, General Administration Department(GAD), Sheela Thomas sought a report from the department heads on the pendency of files.
Only 42. 59 per cent of the Plan fund of Rs 30,524 crore could be utilised so far, with barely two months of the the current fiscal remaining.
However, Additional Chief Secretary Sheela Thomas said she did not personally believe there was a major crisis.
“I don’t see any serious slowdown.Butin the wake of the complaints from various quarters regarding a slowdownin file movement,the government wants to get the statistics on the clearance of files starting from 1 January,“ she said.
It should be noted here the government issued the in-principle order to introduce the KAS in January. Sources in the Chief Minister’s Office denied reports of crisis in the state Secretariat.
“In fact, it was a precautionary step to ensure no one is consciously delaying the file movement. It was the duty of the Heads of Department(HoD) to ensure there was no inordinate delay in the file movement,” sources said.
But a top Secretariat official on condition of anonymity said the main problem with the file movement was the lack of scientific approach towards work allotment.
“While some of the employees have to shoulder major work,those belonging to the pro-ruling party employee unions are given light duty. As a result, the files get stuck there. The P and ARD must ensure equal distribution of work,” the official said.
According to him, while the Secretariat manual allows the assistants to keep a file for up to five days, a section officer and Under Secretary can sit on it for three days.
If the file is to be cleared by the department secretary or the minister,it will require 10-15 days. But in the case of queries at any stage of the file movement,it would be sent back to the assistant to take another round of shuttling from the top to the bottom and vice versa. This exercise takes place in the case of at least 20 per cent of the files, twice on an average, holding them up for months.
Speaking to Express, Kerala Secretariat Association general secretary T Sreekumar, however, rubbished reports of employees deliberately delaying files.