Kurnool: 11 village secretariat employees suspended

Kurnool: Collector G Veera Pandiyan placed 11 sachivalam employees under suspension on Wednesday for violating social distance norms and celebrating birthday of an employee in the office. According to District Panchayat Officer (DPO) K L Prabhakar Rao, around 11 employees of sachivalam discharging duties at Ponnapuram village in Nandyal, have celebrated an employee birthday in the office.

All the employees after cutting cake have danced to the music of filmy beats on April 20 and the video went viral on social media and the incident was also published widely in print media, stated the DPO.

On learning about the incident, the Collector ordered a probe and based on the report, he issued suspension orders to all the employees. The employees instead of educating the residents about the corona threat have celebrated the occasion violating the social distance norms, the DPO pointed out.

However, the employees have denied it as baseless and said the occasion was celebration of getting three months salary at a time.

On getting three months salaries at once we felt very happy and have organised a small treat at the office, they said. The sachivalayam employees said the occasion was celebrated in the month of January not in April during lockdown period.