UT Administration terminates services of Shayin’s ex-PA

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 22

After former Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Shayin’s repatriation to his parent state Haryana, the UT Administration today terminated the services of his former PA Poonam Malik from the UT Administration.

At present, Malik was holding the charge of Senior Assistant in the Agriculture Marketing Board. The orders were issued today by UT Deputy Commissioner SB Deepak Kumar.

Confirming the development, the DC said Poonam Malik’s appointment was wrong as earlier she was an employee of the Red Cross Society, which is an NGO, and a Red Cross employee could not be absorbed in the government service, he said.

The DC said Poonam Malik’s services had been terminated from the UT Administration as well as from the Red Cross Society. The DC is the chairman of the society.

Sources said the orders were issued after the UT Vigilance Department found in its probe that Malik’s appointment in the UT Administration was against the rules.

Poonam Malik was an employee of the Red Cross Society but was made the PA of the Deputy Commissioner.

Thereafter, Shayin 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 the Secretary of the Chandigarh Market Committee, which has its office at the Sector 26 grain market.

In one of the complaints against Poonam Malik, it was stated that being an employee of the Chandigarh Red Cross Society, she was not eligible for deputation as the Class III 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 among the assistants working in the Civil Secretariat with a minimum experience of two years.

The complaint further stated that Poonam Malik’s appointment as the Secretary of the Market Committee was also wrong because, according to the Class II service rules, only those Assistants/Senior Assistants working in the Marketing Board could be made the Secretary who had a working experience of a minimum of 12 years. In the case of the former DC’s PA, her experience as Senior Assistant in the board was not even that of a week. Several experienced assistants were ignored while giving her the charge of the Secretary of the Market Committee, stated the complaint.