Delhi Assembly Speaker writes to Venkiah Naidu on Assembly secretary issue

Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel has written to Union information and broadcasting minister M. Venkiah Naidu that he has instructed Assembly secretary Prasanna Kumar Suryadevara not to respond to a memorandum served to him for not reporting for duty to the director-general of the All-India Radio (AIR) and for writing an article in a national daily whereby he had criticised the Union government in violation of the Central Rules. The Speaker has once again urged Mr Naidu to allow Mr Suryadevara to continue as the Assembly secretary on a permanent basis. The Prasar Bharati had recently directed the Delhi government to relieve Mr Suryadevara as his services were required immediately at the AIR.

This is the fourth occasion when Mr Goel has requested the Union minister to allow Mr Suryadevara to continue as the secretary of the Delhi Assembly. In reply to one such communication, Mr Naidu had even assured the Speaker that he would get the matter examined. Before Mr Naidu could take a call on the matter, the officer was directed by the Prasar Bharati to immediately report to work with the AIR. The Prasar Bharati directive had not gone well with the Speaker who in turn had directed the officer not to follow any such instructions and continue to discharge his duti-es as the Assembly Speaker until further orders. Even the Delhi Assembly in its sitting on September 9 had passed a resolution endorsing the Speaker’s decision to retain the officer as the Vidhan Sabha secretary. The Speaker said that during the course of the short duration discussion, he had also made a request to Mr Naidu on behalf of the House to allow Mr Suryadevara to be absorbed in the Assembly as its secretary on a permanent basis.

Mr Goel said that the officer was, however, served with an office memorandum which stated that he had been relieved from the Delhi government and was to report to the AIR DG. Since the officer had not rep-orted to the AIR DG, the me-morandum directed him to report for duty immediately, failing which he would be treated on unauthorised absence. The memorandum also cited an article written by the officer stating that he had criticised certain actions of the Union government in violation of the Conduct Rules.

The memorandum had directed the officer to explain within a week why disciplinary action should not be initiated against him.

He said that the memorandum had come as a shock to him because a sub-ordinate wing of the Union government had decided to issue it even after he had been assured by the Union minister that his plea was being examined. He said that after going through the contents of the memorandum and also as mandated by the Assembly in its recent resolution, he was left with no other option but to direct Mr Suryadevara to continue to discharge his duties as the Vidhan Sabha secretary.