No official within Lok Sabha Secretariat was eligible for Secretary General's post: Sources

NEW DELHI: The appointment of senior Uttar Pradesh bureaucrat Anoop Mishra as Lok Sabha Secretary General was made in the absence of anyone eligible for the post from within the House Secretariat, official sources said today in the backdrop of Congress contending that due procedure was not followed.

The sources said that P K Grover, whom Mishra succeeded today on his superannuation, was eligible and, therefore had been appointed by the Speaker sometime back. Besides, they said that it was not for the first time that anyone outside the Lok Sabha Secretariat had been appointed to the post.

S Gopalan and T K Vishwanathan, who had held the post of Secretary General in the past, were not from within the Secretariat, they said.

Earlier in the day, Congress had contended that due procedure was not followed as the largest opposition party was not consulted in the appointment of 59-year-old Mishra by the Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge argued that he was not questioning the appointment made by the Speaker, but was only contending that due procedure of consulting the opposition was not followed.

As there is no recognized Leader of the Opposition, she may not have consulted him regarding the appointment, he said.

Kharge also wondered whether no official of the Lok Sabha Secretariat was capable of taking over as the Secretary General.