lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has expressed her unhappiness to Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth and Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for “overstepping the authority of Speaker” over the appointment of IAS officer Dr DK Bhalla as Secretary in lok Sabha Secretariat (lSS).
Bhalla was appointed Secretary lSS on January 3, 2015 in the apex scale of Rs80,000 (fixed) on deputation basis for a period of three years following the decision of the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) which is represented by Seth as Secretary.
However, the DoPT while conveying the ACC approval to the lSS mentioned that he will be carrying his scale pay (which was Rs67,000-Rs79,000) of the State Government to his new designation and posting as well. Bhalla’s pay scale in the State is lower than what he has to get as Secretary lSS. But since the Secretary’s pay scale in lSS is fixed it cannot be changed even if the officer was drawing lower pay scale.
Unhappy with notings from DoPT about the scale pay, Mahajan wrote back on file: “Dr Bhalla was appointed Secretary lok Sabha after taking my approval in the file in the apex scale.
Government of India had been asked to give cadre clearance and relieve him for joining here. It seems that DoPT has tried to fix the pay of Secretary lok Sabha, which is not their post. It amounts to overstepping the authority of the Speaker."
Based on instructions from Mahajan, Secretary General of lok Sabha Anoop Mishra wrote to Cabinet Secretary seeking modification of DoPT order on scale pay. "The orders for appointment of Dr Bhalla as Secretary in the lok Sabha Secretariat in the scale of Rs 80,000 (fixed) has been made with the orders of the Hon'ble Speaker and Dr Bhalla would be eligible to draw the scale.
The stipulation that he would carry his scale pay of the State Government to the new assignment is without basis and, therefore, needs to be modified," Mishra wrote to Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth. It is learnt that the DoPT has maintained silence on this and there has been no modification in the order.
The appointments in lSS are governed by Parliament through the Speaker under Recruitments and Conditions of Service Rules of Parliament and any interference with this, obviously, is not to the liking of the legislative. As per lSS rules it is not necessary for an officer to be empanelled as Additional Secretary in GOI for being considered for the post of Secretary, lS, rather he should be only in the Higher Administrative Grade (HAG) Scale for at least three years which Bhalla was already having for more than four years at the time of his selection.
The 1986-batch officer from Nagaland cadre, Bhalla prior to his appointment as Secretary lSS was Executive Directive Food Corporation of India under Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and an Additional Secretary (AS) ranked officer. Even though not empanelled as Additional Secretary in Centre, he was getting the rank pay of Additional Secretary as per time-scale. Sources said Bhalla is of the rank of Chief Secretary in the Government of Nagaland from March 1, 2015, and since he did not go for the posting after becoming Secretary in lSS, his junior Pankaj Kumar was made the Chief Secretary. Hence, he was entitled for the new pay grade of Rs 80,000 any way from March 1.