ITANAGAR, Apr 28: Strongly protesting the suspension of Seppa RWD Executive Engineer Marto Riba by the East Kameng deputy commissioner, the Arunachal Pradesh Engineering Service Association (APESA) has demanded instant revocation of the suspension order.
In a representation to the chief secretary, the association said the decision to suspend the EE was “unilateral, illegal and authoritarian” on the part of DC Gautam Singh Rajawat.
A team from the APESA, which called on Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar here on Tuesday, “apprised the CS of the case and submitted the records made available through the EE to the DC, copies (of which were) furnished to the association,” it said.
The association said Riba’s suspension was “beyond the powers of the deputy commissioners as per CSS Rules.”
“The records submitted speaks that Riba has been performing his duties diligently, abiding all laid down rules. He had to rush to Itanagar for an urgent government official duty on 23 March, 2020, by seeking written permission from the DC and consented by his controlling officer, the superintending engineer.
“He had missed a meeting on 25 March, 2020, fore noon, which was attended by his immediate subordinates, wherein he resumed normal duties on 25 March, 2020, afternoon, which beget him the volleys of one show cause notice and two suspension orders on 26 March, 2020, and 1 April, 2020, respectively, when the officer was performing his Covid cluster coordinator duties and flying squad duties in the station,” the association said.
It said the DC’s actions “manifest his ulterior intention for vindictive action on EE (RWD), unbecoming of a team leader in the district.”
It added that the DC should be “reprimanded by a show cause as to why he should be vindictive to scheduled tribe officers, violating natural justice of giving reasonable opportunity of being heard before placing him under suspension.”
The APESA said that it would declare a phase-wise democratic movement “in the form of non-cooperation against the DC, and statewide tool down/pen down strike, as deemed fit and appropriate,” if no positive action is initiated by the state government within 14 days.
