SKM denies rule flout

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, 23 January 2020, Gangtok: The Sikkim Krantikari Morcha and its opponents are engaged in a war of words over the appointment of a none-Sikkimese as official on special duty to chief minister P. S. Tamang (Golay).

Jacob Khaling, the SKM spokesman and political secretary to the chief minister, said Sunil Saraogi's appointment as the OSD was in keeping with the law of the state and in no way violated Rule 4/4 of the Sikkim Government Establishment Rules 1974, which is an old law concerning government employment that is protected by Article 371F of the Constitution.

"It is true that the above mentioned appointments (Saraogi's and that of Mahendra P. Lama as chief economic advisor to the chief minister) were made by our government, but calling it a violation of Rule 4/4 is immature, untrue and misleading. Both the appointments were made keeping in mind the state government rules for employment and the role they were (sic) required to play in the national arena," said Khaling in a statement released here.

The appointments, he said, were made under sub-section (1) of Section 3 of the Sikkim State Public Services Act 2006 and they didn't in any manner violate any other rule or Act enforced in the state. The subsection (1) reads: "The State Government may from time to time employ such person whom it may consider suitable to render advisory or other similar services in connection with the affairs of the state Passang Sherpa, an activist and coordinator of Iam 371F, however, argued that the Sikkim State Public Services Act 2006 in itself violated Rule 4/4 and called for its scrapping.

"The SKM had promised the Sikkimese people that once it came to power, the appointment of none-Sikkimese in any government post would be stopped and the violation of Rule 4/4 would be rectified. By appointing a none-Sikkimese as an OSD, the ruling party is misusing the very Act it had promised to rectify," he alleged.

Sherpa said it was the SKM and chief minister Golay who had protested the Sikkim Democratic Front government's appointment of Anita Gupta, who is the wife of the present state chief secretary S.K. Gupta, as OSD in the capacity building department in 2016.

K. T. Gyaltsen, a senior leader of the SDF, also accused the ruling party of duplicity. "When two circumstances are similar how can one be wrong and the other right?" he asked.