Kohima, June 2 (MExN): The Nagaland Assembly Secretariat Staff Association (NASSA) on their resentment has clarified that its contention is against the “arbitrary exercise of amending the existing service rules by Dr PJ Antony unilaterally to suit his interest of service extension by inserting a provision where a superannuated officer can be appointed on deputation in the Assembly Secretariat till the age of 65 years.”
The association in a clarification alleged that ‘this whole exercise of amending the service rules was arbitrarily done without observing any procedural norms and guidelines issued for this purpose and without consulting any senior administrative officers or the Service Rules Amendment Committee which was constituted with a mandate to make recommendation for revision/amendment of the existing service rules.’
The resentment of the NASSA and its opposition to the service extension of Dr PJ Antony, the association stated is, ‘not a pursuit against the effects of promotional avenues of the Officers & staff of the NLA Secretariat on the sideline of the service extension of Dr PJ Antony.’ It said that Dr PJ Antony, a retired officer has been re-appointed as the Commissioner & Secretary of NLA Secretariat in 2020 for a contract period of two years (1.06.2020 to 31.05.2022) which was necessitated at that time due to non availability of the officers in the feeder cadre who had fulfilled the required criteria and other factors necessary to be promoted to the post of Secretary. Therefore, his re-appointment in 2020 was done under exceptional circumstances as per the available provision of the Government Order.
However, it claimed that keeping in view that the tenure of his contract service was due to be expired on May 31, 2022, Dr PJ Antony resorted to ‘hastily amend the Assembly Secretariat Service Rules to accommodate himself as a superannuated officer since all the existing Government Rules on re-appointment after retirement has been utilized during his re-appointment in 2020 and there is no other available provision within the Government established process except to amend the NLA service rules to accommodate him which however, was done on personal whims without administrative fair play.’
The association said that the Cabinet has already approved for creation of one post of Principal Secretary and relying on the enforcement of the Amendment Notification dated May 18, 2022, Dr PJ Antony, a retired Officer has been proposed to be appointed to the newly created post of the Principal Secretary to which NASSA strongly objected.
NASSA also stated that the operationalization of e-Vidhan application in the State Assembly by utilizing the expertise service of Dr PJ Antony does not necessarily warrant his extension of service as an Administrative Head of the NLA since his service can be utilized as a resource person for the project as earlier. Further, NASSA also clarified that the e-Vidhan Project was initiated by former speaker and former commissioner & secretary and not during the time of Dr PJ Antony.
