Almost a fortnight after he went around the Punjab Civil Secretariat catching hold of absentees or latecomers, including his cabinet colleagues and bureaucrats, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday carried out a surprise check at Mini Secretariat at Chandigarh finding 14 senior officers absent.
Aimed at ensuring decorum and discipline in the Government, the senior Badal landed at the mini-secretariat complex in Sector-9 just five minutes after the official timing starts at 9 am. As he went around the floors where senior officers sit, he found at least 14 of them had not reached their offices on time.
Surprise checks come after a month of “strict directives” by the Chief Minister to the Ministers and babus to remain present in their offices during official timings — 9 am to 5 pm. Badal had asked the Cabinet Ministers to ensure their presence in their offices, at least between Tuesday and Thursday. “The move is aimed at ensuring punctuality and discipline in Government offices and to ensure that grievances of the common people are addressed,” a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said.
The officers who were not found present in their offices included Principal Secretary (Defence Services) SR ladhar, Principal Secretary (Housing and Urban Development) A Venu Prasad, Principal Secretary (Surplus Pool) Dharamvir and Principal Secretary (Jails and General Administration) Sanjay Kumar.
Secretary (Transport) Anurag Aggarwal, Secretary (Freedom Fighters) VK Janjua, Secretary (Finance) JM Balamurgam, Special Secretary (PWD) HS Kandhola, Special Secretary (Transport) Amarpal Singh, Special Secretary (Higher Education) Chander Gaind, Special Secretary (Civil Aviation) APS Virk, Secretary (School Education) Rahul Bhandari, Additional Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Avtar Chand Sharma and OSD (litigation) Rl Mehta were also found absent.
As of now, the Punjab Government has not proposed any action against the officers found absent. A number of other senior officers were found present in their offices when Badal visited the office complex including the two — Special Secretary-cum-Director Welfare of SC/BC Pirthi Chand and Secretary Irrigation Balwinder Singh Multani — who were to be superannuated on Monday. Finding them present in their offices at the right time on the last working day of their Government careers, Badal complimented them.
Chief Minister also interacted with the officials present in their offices, to know their problems and hardships coming in way of discharging their duties. He also checked the civil dispensary at the mini-secretariat and found all the doctors and paramedics present.
A few junior employees and the entire staff of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) were absent. Badal had recently directed the officers to ensure their presence in offices during official working hours. He had also imposed a ban on officers in districts working from their camp offices at their official residences instead of attending regular office.
Badal, on June 17, had conducted a surprise check at Civil Secretariat finding eight Cabinet Ministers, and a senior IAS officer were not present in their offices. Peeved, he asked his Ministers to ensure their presence in office to discharge official work and urged officers or officials to remain available in office from 9 am to 5 pm “for the convenience of general public” who come all the way to meet them for getting their work done and to redress their grievances from far flung areas of the State.
Badal had also asked the officers to remain available in their offices from 9 am to 5 pm for the convenience of general public in order to instill a sense of confidence and belongingness in the State administration.