New Delhi (24.02.2021): Who is targeting former Union Health and Family Welfare Secretary Preeti Sudan (Retd IAS:1983:AP)? And what for? Can the issue of leave be weaponized? Apparently, it is Jaganmohan Reddy's Andhra Administration that has taken the potshot at her. So it is open to inference that it might be the state CM himself who is trying to irritate her or maybe his advisers who might have suffered some pain because of Ms. Sudan's famous temperament. In a GO issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) of the AP government on Tuesday, the retired civil servant was virtually and literally accused of converting her Extraordinary Leave (EOL) as Earned Leave/Half Pay Leave by influencing her subordinates who allegedly were not authorized to do so without the concurrence of the cadre controlling authority. It is said that the 1983-batch IAS officer, during her tenure as Vice Chairman and MD of the AP State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited, secured Extraordinary Leave (EOL) for one year from March 1, 2005, to February 28, 2006) to go to the US to join her family. It is added that after securing her EOL, Ms. Sudan requested the DoPT in June 2005, and got its ex-post-facto sanction to extend her EOL from March 1, 2006, to May 5, 2006, to cover her period of study she has taken up with the Development Research Unit of the World Bank. Sudan had also requested that her EOL period may be regularised as EL/HPL as per AIS (Leave) rules. So, before her retirement in July (or August) 2020, the GAD informed the DoPT in a February 2020 letter about the request of Sudan to remit the pension contribution for six months by treating the assignment with the World Bank as a long term assignment. The GAD also requested the DoPT to convey the concurrence of the competent authority to consider the request of Sudan to convert EOL as EL/HPL, excluding the period of six months of her assignment. Whether or not the DoPT acted on the GAD request and conveyed its approval is not clear. However, the GAD, on the basis of her service book, converted the EOL into EL/HPL and communicated to the state CS about the matter. This was followed by the calculation of her pension contribution which was duly communicated to her. On receiving this communication, Ms. Sudan remitted an amount of ₹37,164 towards pension contribution for six months as was required by her. This should have set the matter at rest. But someone in the AP administration has turned jealous even with her continuing post-retirement closeness to the high establishment that has helped her become a member of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR), an international group that is examining how the World Health Organization (WHO) and several countries handled the COVID-19 pandemic. And hence the attempt to blame her for the administrative failure of the AP government.
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By IndianMandarins - 2021-02-24 13:26:00
New Delhi (24.02.2021): Who is targeting former Union Health and Family Welfare Secretary Preeti Sudan (Retd IAS:1983:AP)? And what for? Can the issue of leave be weaponized?
Apparently, it is Jaganmohan Reddy's Andhra Administration that has taken the potshot at her. So it is open to inference that it might be the state CM himself who is trying to irritate her or maybe his advisers who might have suffered some pain because of Ms. Sudan's famous temperament.
In a GO issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) of the AP government on Tuesday, the retired civil servant was virtually and literally accused of converting her Extraordinary Leave (EOL) as Earned Leave/Half Pay Leave by influencing her subordinates who allegedly were not authorized to do so without the concurrence of the cadre controlling authority.
It is said that the 1983-batch IAS officer, during her tenure as Vice Chairman and MD of the AP State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited, secured Extraordinary Leave (EOL) for one year from March 1, 2005, to February 28, 2006) to go to the US to join her family.
It is added that after securing her EOL, Ms. Sudan requested the DoPT in June 2005, and got its ex-post-facto sanction to extend her EOL from March 1, 2006, to May 5, 2006, to cover her period of study she has taken up with the Development Research Unit of the World Bank.
Sudan had also requested that her EOL period may be regularised as EL/HPL as per AIS (Leave) rules. So, before her retirement in July (or August) 2020, the GAD informed the DoPT in a February 2020 letter about the request of Sudan to remit the pension contribution for six months by treating the assignment with the World Bank as a long term assignment. The GAD also requested the DoPT to convey the concurrence of the competent authority to consider the request of Sudan to convert EOL as EL/HPL, excluding the period of six months of her assignment.
Whether or not the DoPT acted on the GAD request and conveyed its approval is not clear. However, the GAD, on the basis of her service book, converted the EOL into EL/HPL and communicated to the state CS about the matter.
This was followed by the calculation of her pension contribution which was duly communicated to her. On receiving this communication, Ms. Sudan remitted an amount of ₹37,164 towards pension contribution for six months as was required by her.
This should have set the matter at rest. But someone in the AP administration has turned jealous even with her continuing post-retirement closeness to the high establishment that has helped her become a member of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR), an international group that is examining how the World Health Organization (WHO) and several countries handled the COVID-19 pandemic. And hence the attempt to blame her for the administrative failure of the AP government.
