Does the job of an Election Observer warrants you to go missing? It seems so, if a letter issued by the Chief Secretary of Kerala government to IAS officer Raju Narayanaswamy is anything to go by.
Curiously, the state government had recalled him from the duty of Election Observer, as it was found that he goes ‘missing’ from his assigned job under the guise of Observer duty.
“None knew your whereabouts and when contact was established with your residence, a reply was furnished that you are on duty with the Election Commission of India,” thus goes a letter issued to Swamy by Chief Secretary E K Bharat Bhushan four months back.
The Chief Secretary issued the letter after it was found that he bypassed the assigned job of Secretary, General Administration (Sainik Welfare) Department, under the guise of a member in the panel of Election Observer.
Another letter by Bharat Bhushan to the Election Commission of India states that “Swamy was posted as Secretary in January 2013, but is yet to join duty and has been missing claiming to be on Election Observer duty assigned to him by the Election Commission of India. It may not be proper for an individual officer to be on Election Observer duty on continuous basis.”
Requesting that Swamy should not be assigned any duties by the EC, the letter further states that “in the event that the Commission considers his services essential, we can consider deputing him to that organisation on regular basis”.
It was following this letter that the EC exempted Swamy from the Observer’s duty.
When contacted, Swamy denied the allegations. “The submission that I was missing from the designated office is misleading and untrue. There are attempts to portray me in bad light,” Swamy said. However, the Chief Secretary told INN Live that the Observer duty was assigned on the basis of a panel submitted by the state to EC. “The panel contained the names of 27 IAS officials, all of whom returned from duties assigned to them once polls were over and results declared. The government does not have any animosity towards Swamy,” he said.
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