Srinivasan appointed Assembly Secretary, subject to court ruling

Srinivasan, who was acting as private secretary to Dhanapal, took charge as secretary on Monday. As per the order dated March 3, the decision to appoint Srinivasan was taken by Governor Banwarilal Purohit after consultation with Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal. 

“Srinivasan, special secretary, Legislative Assembly Secretariat, is promoted and appointed to act as secretary, Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Secretariat, and Secretary, Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, subject to the outcome of writ petitions pending before the Madras High Court vice K Boopathy, Secretary, permitted to retire from service on February 28 afternoon on superannuation,” it read. 

The orders were issued by Srinivasan himself, who is presently holding the additional charge of Secretary. 

Born in Thanjavur on November 28, 1963, Srinivasan is the first officer who had been promoted from ‘reporting,’ and joined the service as Reporter on March 31, 1995. 

It is pertinent to note that the Assembly’s Additional Secretary LS Vasanthimalar and Joint Secretary B Subramaniyam, had filed writ petitions, which contended that steps were taken to appoint Srinivasan to the post, which they claimed to be in contravention to the Assembly Secretariat Rules.

Secretariat staff stage black ribbon protest highlighting demands 

The Tamil Nadu Secretariat Association on Monday launched a black ribbon wearing protest to seek the attention of the state pressing a charter of demands including reinstatement of old pension scheme, pay anomalies, and filling up of vacancies, among others. 

The association president Peter Anthonysamy observed that the state had not created new posts in the Secretariat, while it had created a considerable number of posts in Directorates functioning elsewhere considering the increasing workload. 

“Nearly 1,500 posts are lying vacant in the Secretariat and it accounts to 40 per cent of the total work force here,” he said. The association also opposed the staff rationalisation bid.