Dimapur, June 2 (EMN): Nagaland Assembly Secretariat Staff Association (NASSA) has called for its first phase of agitation on June 3 and 4 in the form of a pen down strike.
The strike has been called to express dissatisfaction on the appointment of Dr. PJ Antony, retired officer, by the state government to the post of principal secretary under the establishment of Nagaland Legislative Assembly Secretariat, an update from NASSA general secretary, Talirenla, stated.
Meanwhile, NASSA clarified that its opposition to the service extension of Dr. PJ Antony, a retired officer from Lok Sabha Secretariat, was not against the effects of promotional avenues of the officers and staff of the NLA Secretariat but 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 could be appointed on deputation in the Assembly Secretariat till the age of 65 years.
“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,” NASSA said.
It stated that Dr. PJ Antony, a retired officer, was re-appointed as the commissioner and secretary of NLA Secretariat in 2020 for a contract period of two years with effect from 01.06.2020 to 31.05.2022 which was necessitated at that time due to non availability of the officers in the feeder cadre who fulfilled the required criteria and other factors necessary to be promoted to the post of secretary. It added that the re-appointment of Dr. PJ Antony in 2020 was done under exceptional circumstances as per the available provision of the government order.
Keeping in view that the tenure of his contract service was due to expire on May 31, 2022, NASSA alleged that 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 utilised during his re-appointment in 2020 and there was no other available provision within the government established process except to amend the NLA service rules to accommodate him.
As 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 has been proposed to be appointed to the newly created post of the principal secretary, to which NASSA has strongly objected.
NASSA was of the view that the operationalisation of e-Vidhan application in the State Assembly by utilising the expertise service of Dr. PJ Antony does not necessarily warrant his extension of service as an administrative head of the NLA. It added that his service could be utilised as a resource person for the project as earlier.
NASSA also clarified that the e-Vidhan project was initiated by former Speaker and the former commissioner and secretary and not during the time of Dr. PJ Antony.