Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The Assam Government has issued fresh guidelines regulating the movement, attendance and headquarters leave of government employees under suspension, making prior approval mandatory before they leave their designated headquarters.
According to an executive order issued by the Department of Personnel, suspended employees cannot leave their headquarters merely by submitting a leave application. They must obtain prior approval from the respective controlling authority, and permission will be granted only in cases involving genuine exigencies. Applications seeking leave on trivial grounds will not be entertained.
The order noted that suspended employees have, in several instances, been leaving their headquarters without informing or obtaining approval from the concerned Controlling Authority, which the government said undermines the purpose of suspension.
Under the new guidelines, offices of controlling authorities will have to maintain a database of all suspended employees under their administrative control. A dedicated physical attendance/reporting register, countersigned by the controlling officer, will also have to be maintained.
Suspended employees will be required to report their presence at headquarters once every alternate working day to the respective controlling authority. The reporting will be entered into the official database.
Any headquarters leave granted to a suspended employee must also be recorded, including the approved period and the grounds for granting such leave. After returning from leave, the employee must report in person to the controlling authority before resuming the alternate-working-day reporting requirement.
The government has also prescribed disciplinary action for violations. If a suspended employee leaves headquarters without prior approval, the controlling authority, where it is also the disciplinary authority, will have to immediately initiate disciplinary proceedings by issuing a show-cause notice under the Assam Services (Discipline & Appeal) Rules, 1964.
Where the controlling authority is not the disciplinary authority, it must inform the concerned administrative department or disciplinary authority and request immediate initiation of disciplinary proceedings.
The Personnel Department has directed all administrative departments to strictly implement the guidelines and circulate them among all disciplinary and controlling authorities under their jurisdiction.
The executive order will come into force on the date specified by the government in the order.
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