THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Right under the nose of the Chief Minister in the Secretariat, an employee is being allowed to continue in service even after he was found guilty of producing a fake degree certificate to get promotion as Secretariat Assistant, while serving as Class IV employee.Curiously, instead of suspending him from service, the government has reverted B O Premji to the post of clerical assistant in the General Administration Department, which comes directly under the Chief Minister. It was following complaints that an inquiry was ordered against Premji who was a Class IV employee at the Secretariat. As he was not part of the Secretariat subordinate service, he could not be elevated as Secretariat assistant under by- transfer promotion. But he worked as assistant for two years in the Education Department. In the inquiry, it was found that Premji had only SSLC as qualification and produced a fake degree certificate from the Chowdhari Charan Singh Viswavidyalaya, Meerut. Meerut University had intimated the government that no such student had studied in the University. As he was a member of the Left-wing Employees Union in the Secretariat, the previous LDF Government did not initiate any action against him, it is alleged. When the Oommen Chandy Government came to power, the Chief Minister ordered an inquiry. But the nexus rooted in the Secretariat could manage to keep the file under wraps for a long period. Meanwhile, Premji produced another fake document in the name of the same university claiming that it was a mistake on the part of the varsity and the certificate was genuine. But this time, he could not hoodwink the inquiry officer. As he had admitted to have resorted to forgery earlier, he was reverted to the clerical assistant’s post. But it has been pointed out that since his acts, including fabrication of documents besides misrepresentation of facts, violation of the KSSR and Kerala Government Servant conduct rules, were a criminal offence, the government should have suspended him from service before initiating disciplinary action. Following the PSC appointment scandals of Wayanad and mobile copying scandal linked to the sub-inspector recruitment test, the government had created 30 posts in the GAD to verify the certificates. Ironically, Premji was working in the same GAD without being caught. Secretariat Assistant Rank-Holders Association president Abhilash K Narayanan who had filed a complaint in the High Court challenging the by-transfer posting /promotions said that the government was not intimating the by-transfer appointments to the scrutiny of the PSC. PSC recruits had to send the verification certificates before their appointments are regularised as per rules, he said. He said Premji was the sixth respondent in the writ petition he had filed in the High court (Abhilash Narayan Vs State of Kerala (wpc23066/2010) and Anoop kumar N vs State of Kerala. The Association had got a stay order from the High Court. Requesting anonymity, a middle-level officer in the Secretariat told ‘Express’ that what had been unearthed was only a tip of the iceberg.‘’Large number of people have managed to get by-transfer promotions to the post of Secretariat assistants and Section officers by producing fake certificates. But no union had come forward to demand a comprehensive probe to unearth the racket behind this, for obvious reasons,’’ he said.
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