Delhi assembly adopts resolution against transfer of secretary

The Delhi assembly on Friday adopted a resolution seeking absorption of secretary Prasanna Kumar Suryadevera to the post on a permanent basis.

The Delhi assembly on Friday adopted a resolution seeking absorption of secretary Prasanna Kumar Suryadevera to the post on a permanent basis.

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AAP legislators termed the transfer order of the assembly secretary by the Lieutenant Governor an ‘executive overreach’ and an attempt to ‘dilute powers of the legislature’.

Speaker Ram Niwas Goel appealed to Union information and broadcasting minister Venkaiah Naidu to relieve Suryadevera from his parent organisation Prasar Bharti.

Goel said he would take up the issue with the presiding officers in Parliament and legislative assemblies of other states.

The services department of the Delhi government transferred Suryadevara, former news reader with All India Radio, on July 22, with a direction to report back to his parent cadre Prasar Bharti.

The issue was raised in the House by AAP legislator Alka Lamba.

The transfer of Suryavedara was overruled by Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, citing the May 31, 2016 order of the services department that extended his term for two years.

The services department, however, issued a fresh order on August 29, directing the secretary that he was relieved from his current post to join back to his parent cadre immediately.

The Speaker said the officer was transferred despite the fact that he wrote to the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting twice, on August 18 and 28. Goel said he even approached the L-G to discuss the issue but he refused to give an audience.

The resolution adopted by the House said it “treats the intrusion of the Administrator into the matters of Legislative functioning as a serious affront to the authority of the Speaker and the sovereign rights of the people of Delhi who have elected the Legislative Assembly”.

It warned “the Administrator to desist from such autocratic, undemocratic and unconstitutional moves in future”.

“I appeal I&B minister to allow his absorption. I will also take up the issue with Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha chairman besides the Speakers of other state assemblies,” Goel said. During the short discussion on the issue, Lamba accused the L-G of transferring the secretary on the advice of leader of opposition Vijender Gupta.

Gupta, however, rejected the charge even as he accused the treasury benches of “spoiling the career of the officer just to derive political mileage of the transfer which has been as per the rules”.