Many Under-Secretary posts lying vacant in govt. departments

Pending litigation cited as reason

09/03/2020,DENNIS S. JESUDASAN   CHENNAI

About half of the posts of Under-Secretary in various departments at the Secretariat are lying vacant.

Of the more than 200 such posts in 37 departments (regarded as one unit, excluding Finance and Law Departments) at the Secretariat, a little over 100 are currently vacant. While pending litigation in the Madras High Court is often cited as a reason behind the delay in appointing the Under-Secretaries, a section of the staff pointed out that appointment orders had previously been issued promoting staff to the post with a caveat that it would be subject to the outcome of the litigation. “The primary reason for the hold-up is a dispute between direct recruits and promotees, who joined government service as typists, and who have staked their claim to be appointed as Under-Secretaries. The dispute has been going on for a long time. If the government takes legal opinion on the issue, it could be resolved. Otherwise, if either party wins the case, naturally the other would file an appeal. Governance has been affected due to the dispute,” a bureaucrat claimed. A Section Officer said Under-Secretaries deal with files in three to four sections in a department and assist their seniors in taking decisions on the files. “In some departments, about 90% of these posts are vacant. It is due to the delay in promotions for about two years that the clearing of files is taking time. It will also eventually affect the promotions of Assistant Section Officers and Assistants. It is a cyclical issue,” he said.

Minister for Personnel and Administrative Reforms D. Jayakumar could not be reached for comment.

Nirbhaya death-row convict now goes to lieutenant governor

TNN | Mar 10, 2020, 04.17 AM IST

NEW DELHI: One of the death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, Vinay Sharma, on Monday approached lieutenant governor Anil Baijal’s office seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment.

The LG office confirmed that it had received a petition from Vinay Sharma’s lawyer. “The petition has been forwarded to Delhi government’s home department for its comments. Appropriate decision will be taken on the basis of the department’s views,” an official said.

The convict moved the LG’s office through his counsel A P Singh, who filed a plea under Sections 432 (power to suspend or remit sentences) and 433 (power to commute sentence) of CrPC.

Sharma, in his petition, described his life behind bars and what he faced during his confinement. The plea urged the lieutenant governor to allow Sharma’s lawyer to make oral submission before him. “Along with other nuances of the petitioner’s case, the entirety of physical and mental torture suffered by the petitioner could be best conveyed to your excellency only by means of an oral hearing,” it said.

A city court has set March 20 as the date for execution of the four death-row convicts — Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur and Vinay Sharma.

Plea to regularise ad hoc staff at BDU constituent colleges

TNN | Mar 9, 2020, 04.04 AM IST

Trichy: The Association of University Teachers (AUT) observed a fast in Trichy on Sunday demanding regularisation of the services of teaching and non-teaching staff in Bharathidasan University’s 10 constituent colleges.

The AUT also demanded that the Tamil Nadu government and the BDU allow ad hoc teachers to pursue PhD and also to guide research scholars. The association demanded UGC pay scale for these teachers.

Only 31 regular teachers have been recruited since the establishment of these colleges, starting 2006. There are 10 constituent colleges including four recently converted into government colleges.

“UGC regulations mandates that not more than 20% of the sanctioned strength shall be filled with ad hoc teachers. However, all the six constituent colleges don’t have a single regular teacher and are run with only ad hoc teachers,” said N Pasupathy, AUT president.

He added that UGC guidelines fixes Rs 25,000 as monthly consolidated pay for ad hoc teachers, which was subsequently modified to Rs 50,000 in 7th UGC scales of pay.

The university has not adopted either so far while the university has chosen to appoint ‘hourly-basis lecturers’ to exploit them further.

“While they are entitled for UGC pay scale, 363 guest lecturers, 214 hourly-basis teachers and around 100 odd PTA teachers are running the college by getting a maximum salary of Rs 12,000. The salary starts at Rs 5,000,” said AUT general secretary M S Balamurugan.

Also, there was a delay on the part of the university to disburse the salary every month, he said. No service rules had been framed in the last 15 years to cater to the needs of the staff, he added.

BDU asst professor booked for sexual assault on PhD scholar

TNN | Mar 11, 2020, 04.55 AM IST

Trichy: An assistant professor from the Bharathidasan University has been booked by the all woman police station (AWPS) Thiruverumbur after a sexual harassment complaint was filed by a research scholar. He has been booked under section 354A for sexual harassment.

According to the victim, the faculty member had made sexual advances citing inability to have physical relationship with his wife over medical grounds.

Although she lodged a complaint with the vice-chancellor, who assured to get her another guide, other faculty members refused to guide her. Subsequently, the vice-chancellor told her that she would be admitted to any of the affiliated colleges under the university.

She approached the Trichy superintendent of police following which a case was booked at the AWPS Thiruverumbur on February 25. On Monday, the victim approached the district collector seeking action against the faculty member.

Speaking to TOI, registrar G Gopinath said that an internal complaints committee has been constituted as per UGC directives. “The inquiry will conclude on Wednesday and the committee is likely to submit the report soon. Action will be initiated based on the report,” he said. Thiruverumbur DSP Y Suresh Kumar said that action will be initiated based on the internal report.

Bank fraud: HC denies relief to staff

TNN | Mar 9, 2020, 04.46 AM IST

Madurai: The Madras high court dismissed the plea of a co-operative bank employee seeking to quash trial court proceedings against him for recommending loans to ineligible people who had already defrauded the bank by obtaining loans in 2014.

Justice G Jayachandran observed that the circular issued by the cooperative society does not prohibit from taking action against erring officials, as it is only suggestive in nature.

The judge observed that when dereliction of duty is not tainted with criminal intention, recovery proceedings alone is sufficient. “This is a clear case of fabrication of records and thereby, the petitioner and the other accused have caused loss to the society. The role of the petitioner in granting loan and tampering records has been spoken by the witnesses in their statements,” noted the judge.

The petitioner A Manivel was working as the circle supervisor of Trichy district central cooperative bank and his duty was to verify loan applications received by the primary agricultural cooperative society and forward the same to the district central cooperative bank. tnn

HC quashes recovery proceedings against woman over 36 years’ delay

TNN | Mar 10, 2020, 04.47 AM IST

Madurai: Madras high court has quashed recovery proceedings initiated against a woman under the Revenue Recovery Act after taking cognizance of the fact that recovery proceedings were initiated against her after a delay of 36 years for the notional loss suffered by the state government during an auction of an arrack shop in 1982.

M Rajathi moved the high court Madurai bench in 2018, seeking to quash an order of the divisional excise officer at Thirumangalam in Madurai district for initiating recovery proceedings.

The facts of the case are that an auction was conducted for an arrack shop at Thirumangalam in which an impersonator in the name of the petitioner’s husband, S A Maharajan took part in 1982. The impersonator had offered the highest bid of Rs 45,180. Though there was a precondition that the impersonator had to remit certain amount of money before the end of the day, the impersonator did not come forward to pay the amount.

Therefore, the authorities re-auctioned the shop which was fetched by another person for Rs 30,105. Since the difference in auction price is Rs 15,075, the amount which was calculated for 12 months at Rs 1,80,900 is being recovered from the petitioner.

Taking cognizance of the submissions that the authorities were well aware of the fact that an impersonator took part in the auction, justice C V Karthikeyan observed the petitioner’s husband died in 2004 and no action was taken by the officials when he was alive. The judge observed that recovery proceedings were initiated only in 2018 and there is no explanation given by the officials for not taking action for the past 36 years.

The judge also noted that the proceedings were initiated not for the actual loss but the notional loss said to have been suffered by the state government. “This is the case which reflects the retrograde bureaucratic approach of the government officials. TNN

Notice to Anna University for 'not filing income tax returns'

TNN | Mar 10, 2020, 12.53 PM IST

CHENNAI: The Income Tax department has issued a notice to the Controller of Examinations, Anna University, for deposit of the money deducted as tax deducted at source (TDS) and for not filing IT returns.

The notice said the controller has not filed quarterly returns for financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20. The department threatened to take action under Section 276B, 278B and 276C of the Income Tax Act if the University fails to reply. Under the sections, the person responsible to reply can be arrested.

Since the financial year is about to end in a few weeks, the income tax department will increase the heat on assessees for either not depositing the money deducted as TDS or those who have not filed their returns.

"We have information that you have not uploaded quarterly returns from the financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20. If you have already filed quaterly returns for the above mentioned period, please produce a copy of such returns," said a note income tax officer V Anandraj sent to the university's controller of examinations on March 6. Anandraj said if the university failed to provide proof of having filed the returns and also failed to file the returns, penal action will be taken. "TDS has been taken from the teaching faculty who were deputed for the semester exam during November-December 2019 for answer sheet evaluation and the same has been done in 23 centres across Tamil Nadu. But the TDS deducted from the individuals have not reflected in form 26AS. Hence you are required to file 24Q and 26Q for the respective financial years in which the amount was deducted from their salary," said Anandraj. The department said the case has been posted for hearing on March 13 at 11.30am. "At this time and date, you are requested to furnish copies of quarterly returns filed and paid challans for the above period," said the I-T official.

Officials in the controller of examinations department told TOI that they were yet to receive the IT notice. "Several thousands of teachers are involved in the answer sheet evaluation and till now the work is going on. We have deposited whatever money has been deducted as TDS and very soon we file the returns also," said a senior official from the University.