Ranchi, May 7: State panchayati raj secretary Vandana Dadel, a 1996-batch IAS officer, courted controversy on Facebook over bureaucratic delay in granting childcare leave, seven months after her October post on religious conversion made waves.
The FB post in a closed group of IAS Association - with privacy settings that denies access to outsiders - on May 4 night had Dadel expressing dismay over the government's delay in approving her childcare leave application.
"Can the government keep my application for childcare leave as pending indefinitely ...Repeatedly asking me to reconsider the leave... What options does one have if one cannot proceed on leave without prior approval?" Dadel wrote, explaining that in February, she had applied for a 25-day childcare leave in May-June.
Former chief secretary Shiv Basant in response to the FB post advised Dadel to sort it out by meeting state personnel, administrative reforms and rajbhasha department secretary Nidhi Khare. Thanking Basant, Dadel stressed women officers should not feel apologetic about asking for such leaves.
"I do feel strongly about the issue because I personally feel child care leave is one of the few extremely progressive policies that we have...The 7th pay commission has made further recommendations to ease the conditions of applications...I did meet the CS (chief secretary) before and after seeking leave but the whole point I'm trying to make is women officers should not begin to feel apologetic or ashamed about asking for such leave which would defeat the intent of the policy," Dadel, who has two young children, wrote.
Under the Sixth Pay commission, women government servants can take paid childcare leave up to two years (730 days) to take care of two children without it affecting their seniority. Even if a woman officer has one child, she can take the two-year leave. The childcare leave is over and above the maternity break and can be taken in any combination till her two children attain the age of 18.
Khare expressed ignorance about Dadel's FB post but said: "To my knowledge, chief secretary (Rajbala Verma) has personally spoken to the CM on this issue yesterday and leave has been sanctioned."
Amrendra Pratap Singh, Jharkhand secretary of the IAS association, expressed his displeasure over Dadel going to social media on this issue.
