Face-off continues amid protests, letters, appeals
NEWDELHI: Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Wednesday asked chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to reach out to officers who continue to boycott meetings over the alleged assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash.
Prakash, meanwhile, on Wednesday led a protest march by bureaucrats demanding a written apology from the chief minister over the alleged assault on him by AAP MLAS.
Baijal and Kejriwal met in the weekly meeting. “Met Hon’ble CM @Arvindkejriwal. Reassured him of my complete support for steps to remove mistrust with Govt. employees. Encouraged again to reach out to them. It is important for all to work together in public interest in a secure and dignified work environment (sic),” Baijal tweeted after the meeting.
However, there seems to be no signs of a thaw in the bitter tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party government and its bureaucracy. Kejriwal also took to twitter to talk about the meeting, but chose not to mention the issue.
CS JOINS PROTEST
The march, titled “March for Dignity”, started from the Delhi Secretariat and ended at Raj Ghat and saw participation of around 800-900 officers.
Members of the Government Employees Joint Forum said that they would continue to boycott meetings or talk to ministers over phone and that they would con- tact ministers and MLAS only through the written channel till Kejriwal tenders a “written public apology”. Manoj Parida, principal secretary (home) and SN Sahai, principal secretary (finance) were among those who took part in the march.
COUNTER-ATTACK
AAP, meanwhile, said bureaucrats violated service conduct rules by openly criticising the Arvind Kejriwal government. “Chief secretary’s allegations are being probed. Why do officers have to issue political statements? It is a clear violation of the service conduct rules,” said party leader Ashutosh. The joint forum condemned deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s “saas-bahu” comment on Tuesday on senior bureaucrats by calling it “highly regressive”. “Such loose comments... are extremely gender insensitive and reprehensible, especially when coming from the minister of women and child development, a constitutional authority,” the forum said.
Meanwhile, Sisodia on Wednesday wrote a letter to Baijal, accusing him of backing bureaucrats who are at loggerheads with the government over the alleged assault. Sisodia’s letter came a day after Baijal wrote to Kejriwal, saying the alleged assault had sent “shock waves” among government employees and had a “demoralising effect” on bureaucracy. “Two day back, I requested you (Baijal) to direct some officers to attend meetings of ministers, but despite this, you wrote a letter to the CM full of exhortations. This suggests you are openly supporting the fatwa (diktat) of the IAS association under which junior officers are being forced not to attend meetings and speak to ministers,” Sisodia said.