Chennai: The state government on Monday promoted and appointed K. Srinivasan to act as the secretary of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly secretariat. The appointment comes in the wake of a recent controversy by the secretariat officials serving in the legislative Assembly department crying foul over the promotions and appointment related to the Assembly secretary post.
A copy of the government order posted Srinivasan as the secretary of TN Assembly and said that the appointment is subjected a writ petition pending before the Madras high court. It may be noted that two senior officials, legislative assembly’s additional secretary L.S. Vasanthimalar and joint secretary B. Subramaniyam filed a petition with the court accusing Speaker P. Dhanapal of nepotism and alleged that the Speaker wanted to get his special private secretary K. Srinivasan appointed as assembly secretary surpassing the seniority cadre. In a related development the court also served a notice to the governor’s office insisting that the court wanted to hear from the governor secretary as the governor was the appointing authority under the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly secretariat service rules.
According to secretariat sources, the state government is to convene the budget session by the mid of this week and there is also proposal to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the Cauvery issue. Under these circumstances, the post of Assembly secretary cannot be vacant. The post became vacant in February as the then Assembly secretary K. Bhoopathy retired from service last month. This is not the first time that the post of Assembly secretary is mired in controversy. Similar chaos prevailed during the extension of A. M. P. Jamaludeen for five years from 2012 to 2017. Jamaludeen attained the age of superannuation on May 31, 2012, and his term was extended for the reasons best know to the administrators, sources added.
