Kejriwal asks chief secy to explain absence at Shastri anniversary event

NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday asked the chief secretary MM Kutty to explain why he was not present at the birth anniversary celebrations of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri at Vijay Ghat in the national capital.

The event was attended by the President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia.

“Delhi CM @Arvindkejriwal summons Chief Secretary for being absent from Vijay Ghat programme attended by Hon’ble President and Prime Minister,” media adviser to the chief minister, Nagendar Sharma, tweeted.

A senior government official said that Kejriwal was not happy over Kutty’s absence at such a national-level event, which was organised by the Delhi government’s art, culture and language department.

Other than Kutty, several bureaucrats also remained absent from the programme, the official claimed.

Kutty remained unavailable for remarks on Monday’s development and several calls and message to him by Hindustan Times went unanswered.

This is not the first time that the Aam Aadmi Party government has locked horns with its bureaucrats.

Last month, the AAP had accused Public Works Department (PWD) secretary of corruption saying he was favouring private companies and affecting development works.

On December 31, 2015 hundreds of officers of Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Island Civil Service (DANICS) went on mass leave just a day before government’s ‘odd-even’ scheme was to roll out.

The officers had gone on mass leave after Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain suspended two officers. The AAP government had called the officers’ move a part of a conspiracy to derail its traffic rationalisation scheme ‘odd-even’.