IAS officers at loggerheads over job order

HYDERABAD: The issue of suspension of P.M. Prasanna Latha, assistant director, Office of Commissioner of Intermediate Education, has snowballed into a controversy between commissioner of intermediate education Syed Omer Jaleel and education secretary Vakati Karuna. The row between two IAS officers has become a subject of hot debate in bureaucratic circles.

Jaleel on August 8 issued orders suspending Prasanna Latha on the charges of securing the junior assistant post in 1992 on 'compassionate grounds' through illegal and irregular means.

However, Karuna on the same day (August 8) suspended Jaleel's on 'administrative grounds' until further orders. The Intermediate Vidya Joint Action Committee (JAC) condemned Karuna's decision. JAC chairman Madhusudhan Reddy demanded that Karuna revoke orders and suspend Latha.

Reddy said Prasanna Latha's father P. Peter, while working as superintendent in the Office of the Director of Intermediate Education, died on November 8, 1992. Latha, being the daughter of Peter and Sowbhagyam, secured a compassionate appointment and was appointed as junior assistant based on her mother Soubhagyam's and her claim that there was no other breadwinner in the family.

On enquiry, it was found that Sowbhagyam was working as a teacher in Modern Primary School, a government-aided school, in Zamisthanpur, Hyderabad. Therefore, the claim of her mother and Latha that there was no breadwinner in her family was false and her appointment on compassionate grounds was illegal, irregular and wrong, the orders issued by Jaleel said. As per norms, the government considers 'compassionate appointment' only on the grounds that if the affected family has no breadwinners.

The enquiry was conducted on August 8. The inquiry revealed that Sowbhagyam gave a declaration stating that there are no earning member in the family including herself. It was also found that in her letter to the Director of Intermediate Education stated that she had no objection to providing employment to her eldest daughter Latha on compassionate grounds and that she was not interested in taking up employment.

It was also found that Latha, in her application dated January 11, 1993, also stated that there was no earning member in her family and her mother was unemployed.