Chandigarh | The Punjab government has given its no-objection to the resignation tendered by IAS officer and BJP candidate from the Bathinda seat Parampal Kaur Sidhu, days after it turned down her request for voluntary retirement from service (VRS).
Sources said the state government has written to the Centre about its no objection to the acceptance of Sidhu's resignation. It is the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Union government which accepts the resignation of an IAS officer.
The development has come as a relief for Sidhu, who is to file her nomination papers from the Bathinda parliamentary constituency for the June 1 Lok Sabha polls.
However, she will not get benefits under the VRS scheme.
Earlier, Sidhu had applied for VRS from the Indian Administrative Service and the DoPT had formally relieved her. However, the state government had rejected her request for the VRS for allegedly "falsifying" grounds and asked her to resume her duties.
Apprehending that she may face problems in getting a no-due certificate for government dues for filling her nominations, Sidhu tendered her resignation from IAS on May 8.
"To avoid any confusion, I have tendered my resignation. I have heard that it has been accepted," Sidhu said.
"I was not being given a no-due certificate (for electricity and water charges for availing government accommodation) citing that I have not retired. They were playing games," she alleged.
A 2011-batch IAS officer, Sidhu had put in her papers last month. She had also requested that the condition of the three-month notice period be waived. Later, she joined the BJP in Delhi.
Sidhu is the daughter-in-law of Akali Dal leader Sikandar Singh Maluka.
After she joined the BJP on April 11, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said that the state government had not accepted her resignation as an IAS officer. She was at that time posted as managing director of the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation.
