After serving the government for decades, walking unhindered into government buildings and sitting in high offices in all splendour, life for a retired secretary to the government can be a rude shock if he has to queue up for a visitor pass to enter the same building. Now, the Home Secretary has chosen to intervene.
In an order on May 21, Home Secretary L.C. Goyal has authorized a change in a set of 39-year old rules by which a retired secretary will now get a "non-official" pass "on courtesy basis" for two years instead of one year at present and the pass will be eligible for a renewal for another year "in highly deserving cases." This followed many complaints from retired secretaries that they were expected to obtain visitor passes from reception offices while visiting their erstwhile ministry after the passes expired a year after their retirement. Goyal has also approved scrapping another clause whereby if a non-official pass was to be issued for entry to multiple government buildings, the recommendation of three serving secretaries was required to endorse the same - leading to the request of a retired secretary falling in a long loop. "The condition regarding endorsement of three secretaries in ministries, however, will not be applicable for issuance of non official photo passes to retired secretaries/secretary equivalent officers immediately upon their retirement," the new orders say, indicating an endorsement by one serving secretary will be enough.
The Home Ministry issues passes to non-officials who are required to visit government officers often - like senior-most office bearers of national-level confederations like CII and FICCI or renowned NGOs and executive chairman or president of highly-reputed national-level institutions. Chairman/MDs/CMDs of reputed public sector companies are also issued such passes - all of which are for a period not exceeding one year at a time but renewable depending on justification.
Source:-The Economic Times
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