THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Moves are afoot to cut short the powers of the PSC secretary under the cover of an order aimed at rearrangement of responsibilities at the PSC headquarters.
The PSC chairman’s order dated July 31 states only a Joint Secretary (Establishment) is needed to approve the advice memo for rotation for appointment in the PSC headquarters in consultation with the PSC member concerned.
As per the order, only in the absence of a particular member at the headquarters, the PSC secretary’s approval needs to be sought. It has also been stated in the order, the advice memo from the Litigation and Rules and Disciplinary Action sections, to be submitted to the Commission, should be submitted through the additional secretary (chairman’s office).
A section of employees belonging to the Pro-Congress PSC Employees Association has said the chairman’s order is aimed at bypassing the secretary. So far, the head of the office (secretary) was approving the rotation before issuing the advice memo.
“There is politics behind such an order aimed at bypassing the secretary. The secretary, before assuming the current post, might have been a member of the PSC Employees Association. That might have been the reason behind the attempt to cut short his powers,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, a section officer belonging to the Pro-Left PSC Employees Union was transferred from the post of handling the advice memo as he had rejected the demand from vested interests to leak out the details of the rotation (on postings).
In case the rotation details are leaked out, it could be made use of by vested interests to meet the candidate to be appointed in advance and make him or her enrolled as a member of their union, said PSC Employees Association general secretary Subash Chandran P K and president Mohammed Jassi.
They said so far the PSC secretary had complete control over the establishment section.
“The PSC manual says the secretary holds complete control over the establishment section. From postings and transfers of post of office assistant to additional secretary, the approval of the secretary is mandatory. For gazetted officers’ appointment and transfer, the approval of the chairman is also needed,” they said.