Staff who complained against ‘abusive’ Azam face action

Senior IAS officer Rahul Bhatnagar has bee made the enquiry officer to draft “charges of indiscipline against these staff members for leaving minister’s office without any valid instructions.”

“It is a gross violation of government rules as all these staff members decided to leave minister’s office together without any valid instruction. Individually,each one of them have been informed about their charges,while the officially they would be served a chargesheet during the disciplinary proceedings,” said a senior government officer.

At present,all the seven staff members — private secretaries B B Singh and Jeevan Singh Negi and additional private secretaries Naeem Siddiqui,Avdhesh Kumar Tiwari,Santosh Kumar Prajapati,Mukti Nath Jha,Sarvesh Kumar and Santosh Prajapati — have been attached to central pool till the time enquiry against them would be in progress.

These staff members are appointed from the secretariat administration cadre and,sources said,alternative arrangements would be made on Thursday for the Azam’s office.

“There is a set procedure for disciplinary proceedings and that would be followed in this case as well,” Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani told The Indian Express.

Secretariat employees association said they will decide on their further course of action depending on the result of the enquiry.

“It is not the first time that employees have opposed the behaviour of the minister. Azam Khan has become a problematic child and we fail to understand why state government is bearing his nuisance. We have decided to wait for the results of the enquiry,” said Yadvendra Mishra,president of the secretariat staff association.