Chief Secretary appears before privileges panel on SEC issue

Chief Secretary of Puducherry appeared before the Privileges Committee on Monday following a petition from a ruling Congress member against him over the appointment of a State Election Commissioner (SEC).

On January 9, T Jayamoorthy had presented a petition to the Speaker V P Sivakolunthu raising an issue of breach of privilege of the House against Ashwani Kumar and a few other officials for their move to appoint the SEC by violating the decision of the Assembly.

The Local Administration Department had released an advertisement on January 7 in the newspapers calling for applications to the post of SEC, even though a retired official T M Balakrishnan had already been appointed as per the decision of the Assembly and the cabinet.

Jayamoorthy sought action through his petition against the Chief Secretary, secretary to the local administration department and its under-secretary and director for the move to post the SEC even as an official appointed as per the decision of the cabinet and the territorial Assembly was holding the post since July last year.

Already, the secretary to the local administration department, its director and under-secretary have appeared before the committee.