It is often seen that on holidays, Saturdays and Sundays or after a holiday, officers and employees often switch off their phones or put them on flight mode, due to which it becomes difficult to contact them in connection with work.
The government has expressed strong displeasure over this attitude of the officers and has written a letter to all administrative officers on Saturday. In the letter issued by the Personnel Department, it has been said that it has come to the notice that many officers are not available on their mobile phones after office hours.
Their phones are either switched off, in flight mode, out of coverage area or even on call diversion. Some works related to administration require immediate involvement of the government.
Officers should be available on phone even on holidays
Issuing orders to all concerned, it has been said that on holidays, they should be available on cell phones to complete the necessary office administrative work, so that these works can be completed on time. Similarly, another letter was also issued two days ago.
In which all the concerned were told that it is seen that the officers do not give the MLAs the respect they deserve. The letter said that orders have been issued several times before that the status of the MLA in the protocol is above the Chief Secretary, so it is necessary to give them respect.
Former CM Amarinder Singh had also issued an order
Now this is the second consecutive letter in which the government has expressed displeasure over the mobile phones of officers and employees being switched off, although this is not the first time that the Personnel Department has had to issue such a letter.
Earlier, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had passed a similar order in 2017. Then he also said that the mobile bills of officers and employees are paid by the government. This is being done so that they are available 24 hours.
Phone allowance was started in 2011
The former SAD-BJP government started phone allowance for government employees in 2011. This allowance was started on the recommendations of the committee formed to remove the anomalies of the Pay Commission, however, later when Captain Amarinder Singh wanted to reduce this expenditure by half with the intention of reducing expenses, the employees protested a lot but the government remained firm on its decision.
At that time, the government had to pay Rs 101 crore as mobile expenses. The government reduced the cellphone allowance of Group A employees from Rs 500 to Rs 250 per month. For Group B employees, it was reduced from Rs 300 to Rs 175 per month. Similarly, for Group C and D employees, it was reduced from Rs 250 to Rs 150 per month.
