Dept heads can take disciplinary action on redeployed Annamalai varsity staff

A senior official from the Higher Education Department, seeking anonymity, told DT Next that a total of 2,635 surpluses non-teaching staff — in the categories of the assistant, junior assistant, record clerk, driver, assistant programmer, electrician, office assistant, watchman, and gardener — were redeployed to various government departments in 2017 for three years, subject to conditions when the government took over Annamalai University. 

Stating that as per the conditions, the university, which should have taken its staff within a specific period, could not call them back due to financial crunch, the official said that the surplus employees of the institution, who were still in other departments, started creating issues with their senior officials. 

“They were not co-operating with the senior colleagues including not giving reasons for excess leave,” he said adding “therefore, citing several issues, a principal secretary of a particular department wrote to his counterpart in Higher Education Department recently to delegate powers to the government departments to take disciplinary action against the surplus non-teaching staff of Annamalai University for irregularity committed by them.” 

The official pointed out that after verifying the irregularities committed by the certain non-teaching staff of the university, the government has directed that the competent authority of the concerned departments will have the powers to take disciplinary action against those staff of the university wherever they have been redeployed, for the irregularities or lapses committed by them following the principles of natural justice. 

However, the non-teaching staffs have claimed that as per the conditions the university should call them back once the redeployment period was over. The University sources also pointed out that due to the financial crisis, the management had already urged the government to extend the period of agreement of non-teaching staff for a further of a period of three years.