Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee paid a surprise visit to the Departments of Education and Agriculture at the M S Building here on Tuesday and found over 40 employees absent.
Sources told Express that around 10.30 am, Mukherjee entered the offices and found almost all the chairs empty and even some cabins were locked. The employees were baffled to see the Chief Secretary in their offices.
Mukherjee directed officials to issue notices to all the late comers and also cut their day’s salary as punishment. Within minutes of Mukherjee’s arrival, the employees present in the office sent SMSs to their colleagues about the surprise visit.
When contacted, the Chief Secretary confirmed the visit and said random visit would continue in the coming days. “Government offices start at 10 am and everyone has to come on time. Now, there is no accountability and the employees come to office leisurely. It was surprising that officials of rank of undersecretaries and deputy secretaries do not come on time. If this being the case, naturally the lower rank officers follow their bosses,” he added.
Majority of the late comers were case workers and data entry operators, he said. The government job is not a demand driven and the files were cleared as and when the parties concerned come, he said. “Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was briefed about the surprise visit and he wanted to do it regularly to overhaul the administration machinery,” the CS said.
Mukherjee said the difference between the surprise checks by minister and himself was that the latter can visit the offices which comes under his/her ministry. But it was not so in the case of Chief Secretary as all the department comes under him, Mukherjee said.