Minister’s office creates embarrassment for State Govt
Sunday, 11 December 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The registration of an FIR by the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the cabinet minister Satpal Maharaj against the head of the Public Works Department (PWD) and the former Personal Secretary (PS) of the minister has created an embarrassing situation for the State administration. The minister is said to be miffed at the engineer in chief of the PWD, Ayaz Ahmed and his former PS, IP Singh for the promotion of the former to the position of head of the department.
Maharaj holds that the PS used his digital signature to approve the file of Ahmed’s promotion without his knowledge. Incidentally the preliminary inquiry set up on the complaint of the minister against Singh found the former PS in the clear. The investigating officer additional secretary Pratap Shah in his report dated June 16 this year states that the allegation against IP Singh is not correct. On the request of the minister the secretariat administration has set up a three member committee to reinvestigate the charges against the PS and it is yet to submit its final report. In such a situation the lodging of an FIR by the PRO of the minister against Ahmed and Singh has created a major embarrassment for the government.
Meanwhile the Uttarakhand secretariat association, the powerful organisation of the secretariat employees has come out in the support of IP Singh. The president of the association Deepak Joshi said that the report of the three-member committee is still pending and the filing of the FIR is a case of coercion of the employee which would not be tolerated. He claimed that Singh is unnecessarily and deliberately being targeted and it has created huge resentment among the employees. Joshi said that Digital Signature (DSE) is very important and sensitive equipment for the online movement of the files which the signing authority concerned should keep in a safe place with utmost care. He said that the association requests the minister to take back the FIR.
