BENGALURU: In a major shakeup, Legislative Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti has transferred 30 officials out of the Council secretariat on Friday for poor performance. He also warned of another similar exercise soon after the legislature session ends on September 24 if the performance of the existing staff does not improve.
This is the biggest such exercise in the secretariat in about 16 years. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Horatti, said many of those transferred were long-time staffers in the Council secretariat and added that their functioning had been closely observed and monitored. There were complaints about many of them and they had been given a long rope, he said.
The legislature secretariat was formally divided into Assembly and Council secretariats only in 1998, and some of the Council secretariat staffers have been working since then. Many of the staffers were initially appointed as peons and, over the past two decades, they had reached higher positions, but were found not to be competent to perform the duties assigned to them despite several warnings, he said.
The officials transferred are of the rank of deputy secretary, under-secretary, first division assistants and others holding clerical positions. The Council secretariat has a total of 314 postings and there are about
30 vacancies. Horatti said he is looking to fill up at least half of the vacancies through direct appointments and the remaining through routine promotions.
Basavaraj Horatti, a Janata Dal Seular legislator, was unanimously elected Chairman of the 75-member Council in February this year with help from the ruling BJP after the previous chairman P C Shetty of the Congress resigned.
Horatti is one of the longest serving legislators, having been elected as MLC for seven terms representing the Karnataka West Teachers Constituency. As Education Minister, many of his policies brought in far-reaching reforms.