Fake attendance: Action on MPOs imminent

The State government is preparing to take action against Mandal Parishad Officers (MPOs) who reportedly failed to properly monitor the attendance of Panchayat Secretaries. Show-cause notices have already been issued to these ‘negligent’ 47 MPOs across the State.

The Panchayat Raj and Rural Development (PR&RD) department has launched a State-wide probe into fake attendance records and identified 553 Panchayat Secretaries involved in the irregularity. Minister Danasari Anasuya (Seethakka), who has taken a serious view of this administrative lapse, instructed the PR & RD Director, Srijana and the concerned District Collectors to take action against those responsible.

As a result, one Panchayat Secretary has been removed from service, 15 others have been suspended, and show-cause notices have been issued to the rest. Show-cause notices have also been issued to 70 Panchayat Secretaries, and charges have also been framed against one MPO, P. Vinod Kumar from Mulugu.

In a notable case, a Panchayat Secretary in Jagtial district uploaded a photo of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy instead of his own geo-tagged photograph on the Daily Sanitation Report (DSR) mobile application. T. Rajanna, the Panchayat Secretary in question, was suspended after failing to provide a satisfactory response to a show-cause notice.