By Vivek Gupta Home Secretary Anurag Agarwal, who is also Agriculture Secretary, on Thursday asked Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Shayin to submit a report at the earliest on the recent transfer of his personal assistant to the Chandigarh State Agricultural Marketing Board on deputation. In his capacity as secretary of the marketing board, the Deputy Commissioner first transferred his PA Poonam Malik as senior assistant in the marketing board on January 15 and a week later, on January 23, she was given the charge of secretary of the Chandigarh Market Committee, which has its office at the Sector 26 Grain Market. Sources said that the agriculture secretary asked for a report from Shayin after getting complaints which alleged violation of rules in the posting of Malik to the board. Agarwal confirmed that the DC had been asked to submit a report, and said action would be taken if Malik’s deputation was found against service rules. In one of the complaints, it was stated that being an employee of the Chandigarh Red Cross Society, Malik was not eligible for deputation as class 3 service rules of the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1961, as applicable to Chandigarh, laid down that in case of transfer on deputation, an employee should be amongst the assistants working in the civil secretariat with a minimum experience of two years. The complaint further stated that Malik’s appointment as secretary of the market committee was also wrong because, according to class 2 service rules, only those assistants/senior assistant (working in the marketing board) could be made secretary who had a working experience of a minimum period of 12 years. In case of the DC’s PA, her experience as senior assistant in the board was not even of a week. Several experienced assistants were ignored while giving her the charge of secretary of the market committee, added the complaint.
