Government employees in Punjab will now no longer be able to send representations or even their copies to higher authorities who are not directly concerned with the matter or the department.
The state government has issued strict instructions to government employees in this regard and warned them that failure to observe the instructions will lead to disciplinary action.
"The Punjab government has issued instructions to the employees of all the departments to not send copies of their representations regarding service matters to outside authorities i.e. those who are not connected directly with the consideration of their representations," a state government spokesman said here on Monday.
"Such authorities include the governor, chief minister, any other minister, secretary, MLA (legislator) or any political or administrative quarter," the instructions, as notified, said.
"This practice is contrary to official propriety and subversive of good discipline. Government employees who do not observe these instructions would be liable to disciplinary action," he said.
Official sources said several representations and their copies from employee organisations and individual cases were being marked to the governor, chief minister, chief justice of the high court, other ministers and secretaries, legislators and others routinely.
"This is leading to unnecessary time wastage and paperwork as the representations and complaints are forwarded to the concerned minister, officer or department for action or comments by the authorities to whom the copies are marked. This is unnecessarily increasing workload," a senior official pointed out.
