SEBI Withdraws September 4 Press Release, Says Will Address Employees Concerns

The Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), finally bowing to the pressure from its agitating employees withdrew the September 4 press release claiming “external influence” behind the unrest among them.

Two weeks ago, the market regulator had alleged that outside forces were fuelling internet discontent which even led to calls for the resignation of Sebi Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch.

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However, the regulator has now retracted its September 4 press release, saying that the concerns raised by its employees should be handled within the organization. They have also confirmed that it is committed to addressing the issues through established internal processes and maintaining its high standards of governance.

The whole drama started off with a letter written by Sebi employees on August 6, which raised several issues regarding the leadership, without directly naming the Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch. The letter highlighted that the working environment was “unrealistic” and asked for changes at the top.

“Despite struggling and toiling hard to achieve KRA targets for last year, KRA targets for this year were increased anywhere around 20%-50% for some departments and divisions,” the letter alleged, adding, “Employees are not robots with a knob that one can turn and increase the output. The work done at SEBI impacts lives of so many people in this country, working frantically to only achieve unrealistic targets to protect oneself from the ire of people at the highest level is a disservice to SEBI and the people of this country.”

Responding to this, the regulator issued a press release on September 4 stating that outside parties were involved in pushing employees to leak information to the media and government to serve their own purposes.

They have claimed that the letter was not officially sent by the Sebi employees’ association and instead was an anonymous email aimed at destabilising the organisation.

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On September 5, several Sebi employees demonstrated at the regulator’s headquarter at BKC, demanding the withdrawal of the press release of the previous day, saying the contents of it had several wrong pieces of information.

However, now with the retraction, Sebi has backed away from its claims.

In the newly released fresh statement, it said, “Following productive discussions with employees of all levels, Sebi and its staff have confirmed that these issues will be handled within the organization’s established processes and resolved in a timely manner”.