Manipur State Assembly with 60 MLAs has 500 staff
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 30, 2012: Besides being the highest seat of political power, the Manipur Legislative Assembly is also one of the Government offices where rules and norms have no place.

Seemingly, financial indiscipline, violation of rules and whimsical appointment characterise this high office.

Reliable sources informed that there are around 500 staff in the 60-Member Manipur Legislative Assembly.

This figure of Assembly staff is much higher than corresponding figures of even the biggest States of India.

This was confirmed when The Sangai Express contacted the Assembly Secretariats of Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra and Uttar Pradesh.

The State Assemblies of Meghalaya and Tripura have 300 and 250 staff respectively though these States and Manipur have the same number of MLAs.

The Andhra Pradesh Assembly which has two houses and 294 Members has 450 staff.

The 295-Member West Bengal State Assembly has around 700 staff.

The 289-Member Maharastra State Assembly has 750 staff while the UP State Assembly has 500 staff against its Member strength of 404.The ratio of staff to members is highest in the Manipur Legislative Assembly which means unnecessary burden on the State exchequer.

Assembly building

The recruitment of unnecessary and extra staff in the Manipur Legislative Assembly was done during the second tenure of the Secular Progressive Front Government, the sources informed.

Altogether 180 staff including 4/5 committee officers an two legal officers were recruited on contract basis even though these posts were non-existent then.

As per a ruling of the Supreme Court, due advertisements must be published under the Compulsory Notification Act in case there should be recruitment on contract basis.

However, no advertisements were published when the 180 extra staff were recruited.

If any citizen files a complaint against such discrepancy and violation of rules, the Speaker may even have to stand on the dock.

In addition, Finance Department has been issuing office memorandums every month to seek its approval if any department must recruit staff on contract basis.

Again, no approval was obtained from the Finance Department when the 180 additional staff were recruited in the Manipur Legislative Assembly on contract basis.

As such, the Assembly Secretariat is unable to pay salaries to the 180 staff.

Apart from those staff appointed on contract basis, many regular staff were also appointed during the second tenure of the SPF Government.

They include nine LDCs, four reporters and five translators.

Due advertisement was published for the recruitment of the LDCs.

But instead of keeping a single candidate in the panel (waiting) list as per the rules, 11 candidates were kept in the panel list and all of them were subsequently recruited which means altogether 20 LDCs were appointed against the advertisement published for recruitment of nine LDCs.

The recruitment of reporters and translators were done without publishing any advertisement.

Neither DPCs were conducted.

All civil works and procurement/supply of materials should be executed as deposit works.

As State Assemblies have no engineering cells, it is the general practice all over the country to execute civil works and supplies as deposit works.

However, for Manipur Legislative Assembly, the Speaker has been issuing contract works and the Assembly itself has been acting as supplier since the last many years.

Not only that, printing of diaries and auctioning of vehicles are done by the Assembly staff themselves.

There are reports that two Bolero jeeps bought during the time of the late Speaker Budhichandra have been taken over by influential officials of the Assembly Secretariat, the sources added.