The Puducherry Adi-Dravidar Development Corporation Ltd. (Padco) has served show-cause notices on eight officials, including an executive engineer of the corporation, asking them to explain within three days for violating rules and instructions of the government for sharing official information in a WhatsApp group.
The government in a circular issued to all departments in January this year had directed all government officers, employees of societies, and organisations run by the territorial administration to desist from using social media for official work.
D. Raghunathan, managing director of Padco, said the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (Personnel Wing) had issued the instructions that government servants should not form groups in social media and they should not discuss or official matters. In spite of the instructions issued, it had come to light that around eight staff in the department had formed a group called “Padco Engineering Wing” in WhatsApp and are sharing official information, which is against Rule 11 of the CCS.