Delhi Assembly Secy given 2-year extension by Speaker

NEW DELHI: Delhi Assembly Secretary Prasanna Kumar Suryadevara has been given a two-year extension of his deputation by Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, rejecting public broadcaster Prasar Bharti’s request to repatriate the officer.

Delhi government officials said the Speaker has the power to extend deputation of any officer working in the Assembly secretariat.

“We have given him (Suryadevara) extension of two years. Mr Prasanna is going nowhere. He will work with us till 2018,” Goel said.

In a letter to the Delhi government’s Services Department last month, Prasar Bharti had stated that Suryadevara should be repatriated with immediate effect as it is facing acute shortage of staff.

Suryadevara, an official belonging to Newsreader-cumtranslator (Telugu) cadre, was appointed to the post of Delhi Assembly Secretary in July last year, initially for a period of one year.

When his one-year deputation period ended this July, the Assembly Speaker had requested the Prasar Bharti to extend his stay in the current position.

However, Prasar Bharti expressed inability to extend Suryadevara’s deputation and asked the Delhi government to repatriate him, saying it was in dire need of experienced professionals. Suryadevara had served Lok Sabha for five years and Rajya Sabha for over six years through the offices of Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman respectively.

Questioning Prasar Bharti’s move, a Delhi government official wondered why such request was not made when Suryadevara was working for Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

In a letter to Services Department, Prasar Bharti’s Deputy Director (Administration) V Sripathi had said, “As this Directorate is in dire need for expressed professionals, like Prasana Kumar Suryadevara, NRT (Telugu), the Directorate expresses its inability to concur with the desire of Speaker, Delhi Assembly for the absorption of Prasana Kumar Suryadevara.”