Discipline and decorum in government offices lay in tatters when Chief Secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari carried out a surprise inspection at the offices of Commissioner and Registrar of Co-operatives on Friday and found 90 per cent staff absent.
The miffed official later initiated administrative action against the errants.
“Absence of most personnel during office hours clearly indicates that there is indiscipline in the office and lack of administrative control. Strict action will be taken against the errants, including salary cut and departmental inquiry. Responsibilities would also be fixed,” Tiwari later said in a written statement issued in Lucknow on Friday afternoon.
The chief secretary said that there were clear instructions from the top that all officers should adhere to discipline and listen to public grievances with sensitivity and resolve them promptly.
Tiwari reached the reception of the building housing Cooperative department office at 9:40 am and found no one present. He later inspected the entire office on his own.
Among the absentees were Additional Commissioner and Additional Registrar Shivendra Kumar, Additional Commissioner and Additional Registrar Kripa Shankar, Additional Commissioner and Additional Registrar Alok Singh, Additional Commissioner and Additional Registrar RK Singh, Financial Adviser PK Aggarwal, Deputy Commissioner and Deputy Registrar RK Kulshrestha, Deputy Inspection Commissioner and Deputy Registrar Ashok Kumar, Assistant Commissioner Shraddha Anang, Assistant Commissioner Abhay Singh, Assistant Commissioner Mohsin, Assistant Registrar Swati Aggarwal, Assistant Commissioner Ramsagar, Assistant Accountant Geeta Pushkar and Accounts Officer Rajendra Singh Negi.
However, Vinay Asthana, Rajkumar and Santosh Kumar, and junior assistant Umesh and associate Brajpal were present in section ‘A’. In B section, all staff were found absent. However, Vijay Kumar, Rambalak Verma, Rajendra Singh, accountants Atul Chandra and Prabhakar Tripathi, and associate Vikas Kumar Singh were present in the accounts section.
Besides, ADO Ramshankar Gupta, junior assistant Manish, principal assistant Sanjay Srivastava and associate Ramasuman were found present, while others were absent. . Ramila David, Pramod Kumar and Manish Kumar were present in the outstanding section.
Except for Neelam Upadhyay and Anuj Kumar, other staff were absent in the purchase sales section, education section and development section.
The top official also reprimanded peon Dinesh who was sitting on a table talking on the phone. No staff was present in the consumer and public information section.
Upset over the mass absenteeism, the chief secretary immediately issued directives for departmental action along with pay cuts for the errants. He also recommended fixing of responsibilities for indiscipline and lack of control.