Resigned Legislative Assembly Secretary; `Reporter to top post…’ – Who is this Srinivasan?

K. Srinivasan, who had been serving as the Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, has resigned from his post, causing a stir in Secretariat circles.

After the TVK government took office, during the swearing-in ceremony of the MLAs, everyone would have noticed that official busily working near the Speaker’s chair. He is K. Srinivasan, the Secretary of the Legislative Assembly, the top official at the administrative level for the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.

In the situation where there is a Speaker, the secretary will be this government official, who is a member of the ruling party elected by the people as the head of the legislative assembly.

This Srinivasan was the Assembly Secretary even during the time when Edappadi K. Palaniswami was Chief Minister. After M.K. Stalin took office as Chief Minister in 2021, he continued in his post. His term ended in 2023. However, the DMK government extended his tenure even after retirement.

Under that extension, he was due to remain in service until November this year, but he has now resigned from the post and submitted a letter to the Speaker.

While various pieces of information were leaking in political circles about Srinivasan’s sudden resignation, we looked into him and his work experience in legislative circles.

''He began his legislative career as a reporter who took notes on Assembly proceedings. Later, he rose step by step to become chief reporter, then section officer, and eventually reached the top post of Assembly Secretary. So he has long work experience in the Assembly. The very fact that he held that important post during both the AIADMK and DMK regimes shows that he was not someone who got caught in controversy.

To put it more clearly, no matter which government comes to power, he will find a place in the rulers’ good books. He is the kind of person who simply does his job honestly and keeps going. Even when, during the Edappadi Palaniswami government, only a few AIADMK members brought a no-confidence motion against the government, he was the Assembly Secretary at the time,” say fellow officials who know him well.

We spoke with former MLA S.S. Balaji of the VCK, who served as a member of various committees in the Legislative Assembly during the previous administration.

''As far as the Legislative Assembly is concerned, there are many committees. However, the Estimates Committee, the Public Accounts Committee, and the Committee on Public Undertakings are the three most important. That is because elections are held only for the members of these committees. These committees are even called mini-cabinets. These committees are responsible for administering the state's finances. Even though the Secretary of the Assembly holds a top position for the entire legislature, his role in the functioning of these committees is also significant.

Generally, the nature of his work is only that of a government official. But in these committees, MLAs, who are public representatives, will be members. Among them, there will also be some who do not know the procedures and rules of the legislative assembly. He would explain all of that to them in a way that was easy to understand. Officials have certain protocols. But from the side of the public representatives, he would ask us to speak about certain constructive matters, saying that you can speak on this.

Personally speaking, he is pleasant to get along with. I don’t know the reason he resigned now,” he said.