U/S & S/O of secretariat have locked their horn

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

On the issue of public information officer (PIO) section officer (S/O) and under secretary (U/S)have locked their horn and additional secretary General administration (GAD) had to struggle hard to cope-up with the situation here in secretariat on Wednesday.

Following on the direction of State information commission (SIC), Uttarakhand,which had advised the government to appoint section officer as PIO, so GAD had issued a notification in this regard but section officer refused to follow this order. With this refusal they have challenged the state government and how government tackles it is depend on future.

As per the rule, section officer is known as custodian of the file of his/her section so there is an understanding that they have more knowledge  of file than U/S. In view of this government had appointed S/O as PIO. Few years ago S/O were promoted as Under-secretary but they were consistently executing their duty as PIO too. Meanwhile State information commission (SIC) took cognizance on it and ordered to the state government to appoint/t S/O as PIO. Following on it GAD has issued a notification and transfer the work to SO by withdrawing from Under secretary. Instead of accepting the revised order SO put undue pressure over the GAD. Subduing under pressure GAD revised its order and maintain status quo. They have given a reason that as S/Os are over worked so status quo is being maintained. With this revised order U/S refused to accept it. To intensify their demand a delegation met with GAD with an appeal not to revise your earlier notification.

With this appeal, secretariat atmosphere has deteriorated because both are putting undue pressure over the GADignite and both are putting their best pressure over the GAD to issue revise order into their favour. Although they may be showing their supremacy to each other but it has raised question mark that Do government employee have authority to refuse government order? If not then why GAD is sitting in dillydally the matter ?