As many as eight officers posted in the Delhi government and the
Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) have alleged "blatant harassment"
by the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation, officials in the LG Office claimed
on Saturday.
No
immediate reaction was available from the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
in the national capital over the allegation of harassment of the
officers.
The officials at the Lieutenant Governor (LG)
Office said two complaints were received earlier this year, while six
were received after May 11, the day when the Supreme Court granted
control of services matters, except police, land and public order, to
the elected government in Delhi.
A
Delhi government official said any reaction on the allegations can be
provided only after going through the complaints, if there are any.
There was also no reaction immediately available from the officers who have alleged they were harassed.
Five IAS officers are among those who have complained against the AAP
government. They are Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, former services
secretary Ashish More, special secretaries Kinny Singh and YVVJ
Rajasekhar, and Power Secretary Shurbir Singh.
IPS officer and head of the anti-corruption branch, Madhur Verma, IRS
officer and chief assessor and collector in the house tax department of
the MCD, Kunal Kashyap, and ad-hoc DANICS officer and deputy secretary
in the services department, Amitabh Joshi, are also among the
complainants, the officials said.
Verma
and Shurbir Singh, who hail from Punjab, have alleged in their complaint
that their families were being targeted in their home state.
Shurbir Singh has informed the LG Office that he has approached the
Punjab and Haryana High Court against the harassment of his family, the
officials said.
The AAP is in power in Punjab and there was no reaction from it on the complaints by the officers who hail from the state.
There has been a growing discord between bureaucrats and the AAP
dispensation in Delhi ever since the Supreme Court granted the city
government executive power in services matters, including transfer and
posting of officers.
Hours after the apex
court order placed the control of bureaucrats working with the Delhi
government, More was removed as services secretary.
Delhi Services Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj had also alleged on Friday
that Chief Secretary (CS) Kumar had issued a death threat to him on May
16.
Kumar, however, claimed in a letter
to the LG that the allegations were an after-thought of Bharadwaj to
save himself from his alleged misconduct with the officers of the
services department.
Sharing details, an
official of the LG Office said on May 16, the chief secretary was called
by Bharadwaj to his chamber in the Delhi Secretariat after office hours
to schedule a meeting of the Civil Services Board (CSB) in the night.
"Due to repeated calls from the minister, the chief secretary again
reached the secretariat and met him. The CS informed the minister that
the CSB met in the morning of May 16 regarding the directions of the
minister for change in procedure to be followed by the CSB and that the
CSB's recommendations was pending with the minister," the official said.
"This file was cleared by Bharadwaj and notings were sent through
WhatsApp at 9:55 pm on May 16 and the physical file was sent around
10:23 pm on May 16 to the official residence of the CS. On May 19,
Bharadwaj made false allegations that the CS has threatened to kill
him," the official said.
This has been
done to make a "counter-complaint as an after-thought to save himself
from the misconduct done by him with officers of the services department
on May 16, once he came to know about the same", the official said
referring to Services Minister Bharadwaj.
In a complaint to the LG, former services secretary More on May 16
complained that Bharadwaj intimidated and detained him along with
another official -- 2014-batch IAS officer Kinny Singh who is special
secretary in the services department -- in his office over some files.
More alleged that the minister forced him to sign a paper and when he
did not do so, Bharadwaj threatened him with dire consequences, saying
that his career will be completely ruined.
In his complaint, More also claimed that another official of the
services department, Joshi, was misbehaved with and that Bharadwaj also
forced him to sign a paper.
More had complained against the minister to the CS and the Union home ministry through the LG.
Special secretary vigilance Rajasekhar, who was looking into the
Delhi excise scam case, expenditure incurred on the renovation of the
chief minister's official residence and other alleged irregularities,
was divested of his charge through an order issued by Bharadwaj.
The LG Office officials said there was an attempt to intimidate
Delhi's power secretary Shurbir Singh by using the Punjab Police to go
after his family in the state.
He has since moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against this harassment, the officials said.
The LG Office officials also claimed that anti-corruption branch
chief Verma, who also belongs to Punjab, was similarly "hounded" by the
Punjab Police.
"The AAP government in
Punjab was after his family -- brother and his wife -- in Ludhiana. He
repeatedly brought this undue harassment to the notice of LG over
months," the official said. Verma alleged that he was harassed since he
took action against Delhi Waqf Board chairman and Okhla MLA Amanatullah
Khan in an alleged corruption case.
The
LG office official further said that the MCD mayor has sent a note to
the MCD commissioner against Kashyap, alleging that the officer is going
slow against house tax evasion by the property of a news agency in RK
Puram. The officer has taken bribes from the firm, the mayor (Shelly
Oberoi) has alleged, according to the official.
The mayor, a member of the AAP, has asked the commissioner to withdraw all works from the officer.
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