Work comes to standstill at Players Building, babus boycott meetings
WORK HIT Amid protest by employees at the secretariat, citizens face a harrowing time, situation likely to continue today
NEW DELHI: It was business unusual at the Delhi secretariat on Tuesday.
A similar situation is likely to prevail on Wednesday too as government officers have decided to boycott meetings called by ministers and maintain only written communication in the aftermath of the alleged assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash.
Work at Players’ Building, which houses the Delhi secretariat, came to a standstill amid slogans and protest by employees over the alleged assault of chief secretary Arvind Kejriwal’s residence on Monday night.
Associations of the Delhi government officers (IAS, DANICS and DASS) termed the incident as “abhorrent”. They said it had resulted in a serious breach of trust and “shaken the faith of the bureaucracy” in the present political executive of the Delhi government.
“It has been decided that officials will only maintain formal written channels of communication with the political executive till the time CM admits and apologises for the incident of physical assault on the chief secretary at his residence in his presence, and strong action is taken against the people responsible for it,” the statement said.
Soon after the news of the alleged assault spread, over 200 Delhi government employees of different departments left their work and assembled at the second floor to protest and show solidarity with the chief secretary.
Citizens had a tough time in getting their work done as most employees were protesting.
Paritosh Dixit, who had some work in the social welfare department, had to return empty handed. “I have taken a day’s leave. My work could not be completed because of the strike by the employees. Whatever the matter be, it is the common public that suffers,” Dixit, a resident of Model Town said.
Although the IAS and Delhi Andaman and Nicobar Island Civil Services (DANICS) officers’ associations announced that they would not go on strike so that citizens do not suffer, most government employees, mainly related to clerical work, stayed away from office.
“Work will certainly be affected as our staff in the offices of the SDMS, excise, health and other departments protested the attack on the chief secretary by AAP MLAS. The culprits should be put behind bars,” said Deepak Bharadwaj, secretary of the Delhi Administration Subordinate Services (DASS).
Bharadwaj refuted the Aam Aadmi Party’s claims that some outsiders entered the secretariat and heckled environment minister Imran Hussain and created a mess. “No outsider can enter the building. If they are saying so, then they must have facilitated the entry,” Bharadwaj maintained.
The IAS and DANICS officers conducted numerous meetings on the issue throughout the day and because of that most of them too could not join their offices.
Manisha Saxena, secretary, IAS Officers Association, said the Delhi government officers strongly condemned the “false, fabricated and malicious misinformation campaign to cover up the incident of assault of the chief secretary”.
“It is being spread that the meeting was called to discuss the issue of the ration cards for citizens of Delhi. If that was the case, why was the food and supplies minister and secretary not there in the meeting?” she questioned.
Amanatullah Khan, MLA, and the person/ MLA (sitting) on my left side, whom I can identify, without any provocation, started assaulting me and hit several blows on my head and temple. When someone will not answer on rationrelated issue then little bit of heated arguments are common but the allegations (physical assault) made by the chief secretary are completely baseless. There will be no strike. We will continue to work but will sport black badges. We have expressed concern to LG. We hope he takes strong action.