The Lok Sabha secretariat in an order on Monday said that if an official, working from home, fails to transact any official work on a particular day would be marked absent and those who could not work from home because of non-availability of computer or any other issue have to attend the office.
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The orders are in contravention of the Secretariat’s own directions of the presence of only 50 per cent of the staff in Parliament premises. Only Deputy Secretary and above are to attend office daily. The others are called in on a rotational basis. So far, more than six officials in Parliament have tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19).
The budget session of Parliament ended abruptly on March 23. Since then, no meeting of the parliamentary standing committees had taken place due to travel restrictions till recently and the varied quarantine norms in different States made it difficult for MPs to travel to Delhi. So far, there is no clarity on whether the monsoon session will be held on time as both Secretary Generals of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, in a meeting with Chairman Venkaiah Naidu and Speaker Om Birla reported that the Parliament premises does not have enough space to accommodate all members while adhering to the social distancing norms.
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The order: 32098, signed by Director Santosh Kumar, says that all files are to be routed online via e-office. And the output of an official working from home will be ascertained in terms of submission of work through e-office. If any official is not in a position to submit work through e-office on any given day, he or she should submit details of work done by them through other means such as e-mail to the supervisory officer.
“In this connection, it is stated that if no official work is transacted while working from home on any particular day, the official concerned shall be considered absent or on leave and Supervisory Officer(s) shall act accordingly, whose directions shall be complied with by the official concerned,” the order states.
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It further says that if an official does not have the necessary facility to work from home, the official has to report to work. “In case of officials who are not able to transact work from home due to the non-availability of computer or other enabling equipment/facility, they shall attend office to transact work, failing which they shall apply for leave.”
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