Our Correspondent
Kohima, June 14 (EMN): Nagaland Assembly Secretariat Service Association (NASSA) on Tuesday started a poster campaign at the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) as part of its indefinite agitation in continuation of its previous 'pen down strike’ and ‘wearing of black badges’.
This development comes following the expiry of the ultimatum served to the Speaker of NLA to revoke/cancel the appointment order of Dr. PJ Antony (Retired Officer) latest by June 13, 2022.
On Tuesday morning, the aggrieved staff gathered at the assembly gate for the poster campaign.
Briefing journalists, Joint Action Committee (JAC) Secretary, Sezoto Theyo said the purpose of the gathering is against the illegal appointment of Dr. PJ Antony in the Assembly Secretariat and against the arbitrary framing of certain provisions in the service rules to accommodate his service.
He maintained that NASSA initially submitted repeated representations to the NLA Speaker not to extend the service of Antony in the Assembly Secretariat. However, despite the resistance and representation, the proposal for re-appointment of Dr. PJ Antony to the post of principal secretary had been endorsed to the government at the highest level and his appointment was approved by the Cabinet.
“For this only, we have started our agitation from June 2 till date (June 14) entering ten working days of the pen down strike”, said Theyo. He added that the NASSA had also submitted an ultimatum to the NLA Speaker; while a statement urging the Chief Secretary to revoke the appointment of Dr. PJ Antony on or before June 13 had also been submitted, but the association is yet to receive any response from the government.
Z Ruyosuyi Wideo, co-convenor of JAC, maintained that the association would not allow entry of Dr. PJ Antony to the office.
Theyo also stated, "We agree that under the Constitution of India under Article 187, he (Speaker) has the authority to revise the rules but even under the provisions of the article there are certain procedures and guidelines laid down by the government for framing and amending of the services; and for this purpose it has been clearly mentioned in the guidelines for framing or amending the service rules - a committee has to be set up and the man-power rationalisation committee has to be set-up and beyond that the comments and the views and opinions of the stakeholders have to be taken into consideration."
The secretary said the NLA Speaker in 2020 had constituted a committee to revive the service commissions of the officers and staff and also to revise and review the existing service rules. He said the tenure of that committee is valid till June 30, 2022, yet despite the existing committee who had been mandated to revise the service rules, the Speaker had arbitrarily revised the service rules to the disadvantage of the officers and staff.
He alleged that the purpose of amending the service rules is to suit his (Dr. Antony) interest and the matter relating to the amendment has already been challenged in the court and for which the response is awaited. He stated that after being subjudice in the High Court, it has been taken by the division bench that normally sits on Wednesdays and will be taken up on June 15.
Further, he informed that in 2020, when Dr. Antony was brought to NLA under deputation, the senior most officer had been recently promoted to the post of additional secretary. Dr. Antony was brought in for a period of five months and after that, he had also simultaneously retired from the service on May 31, 2020.
“After his retirement, his service was re-appointed to the post of Commissioner Secretary so basically now after retirement, the government has already given him two promotions,” he said.
Wideo added that the officers in the state have fulfilled all the criteria and are capable to handle the office here, while their demand to the authority is that the post be given to the state’s own officers and not to a retired person.
NASSA vice-president Rocus Rino demanded that the opportunity should be given to the state officers to prove their competency.
The NASSA officials also stated that as per the service rules of the NLA secretariat, there is no provision of principal secretary and even if the government wants to create the post, there are separate rule provisions which are to be done at the Assembly Secretariat itself.
They alleged that this time, for the creation of the principal secretary post, the senior officers nor the post-creation board had consented nor a meeting was held. It was discovered only after the Cabinet had taken the decision, which came as shocking news and overlapped the rules, while it also undermined the service rules, they said.
The Association further added that there is a Recruitment Service condition, wherein the post -creation board comprising the NLA Speaker as Chairman; Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Finance Commissioner; Chairman Estimate Committee, Chairman Public Accounts Committee are members and Leader of Opposition and Secretary of the NLA Secretariat are secretaries of the committee, but meeting was not called for discussions.