All departments have staff shortage: Rajendra Pal Gautam

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government’s Department for Welfare of Dalits, Tribals, and Minorities has been working with a vacancy of about 60 per cent and the central government is to be blamed for the staff crunch which is inhibiting the government’s ability to deliver on its promises, said Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam.

“All departments in the Delhi government has staff shortage. There is shortage in the Health Department also. But in my departments the staff shortage is a little more,” the Delhi Social Welfare Minister said.

In Delhi, the Services Department which oversees the appointment of officers is under the ambit of central government-appointed Lieutenant Governor, with whom the Aam Aadmi Party-led government has been in a rocky relationship for the four years it has been in power.

Gautam talked about the difficulties the AAP government faces and tussle for power between the Delhi government and LG Anil Baijal.

The minister also said that the Social Welfare Department has been facing “approximately 48 per cent staff shortage”.

Gautam said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government was “shooting from the shoulders” of LG and other bureaucrats, and was “hell bent on stifling the Delhi government.”

The staff shortage in the Social Welfare Department was emblematic about the larger tussle, he said. “I’m not able to do what I want to do as a minister because of the staff crunch,” Gautam lamented.