After a recent crackdown led by Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) Najeeb Jung on the offices of the Delhi government and its allied departments, which triggered a host of suspensions, transfers and show-cause notices, officials have been sternly re-instructed to follow and reaffirm their commitment to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ even if it means ‘weeding out old records’.
Officers in the municipal corporations and the Delhi government are busy making sure their workplaces are clean and bereft of the characteristic piles of records, files and obsolete office fixtures that project a ‘shabby and ramshackle look’ on their respective workstations.
The Delhi government even put out a circular to drive the point home. As per the November 24 circular by the General Administration Department, all branch in-charges and officers were asked to ensure cleanliness in their offices. “During the course of inspection of various offices...carried out by the Heads of Department (HODs) and senior officers under the Swachh Bharat Misson, it has been observed that old files, records...are piled up either under or on the tables, almirahs, cabinets, racks and workstations, and sometimes even on the floor itself,” the circular, forwarded by Sukram Pal, Deputy Secretary, General Administration Department, states.
The said circular then instructs the HODs and department in-charges to ensure ‘fully uncluttered’ offices and workstations.
Police sources said similar instructions had been verbally given to the police bureaucracy. “In the process, if some weeding out of old records and office equipment is required, the same should be ensured...in all government offices, the weeding out and condemnation of those items which have outlived (their) life should be a continuous process,” the circular adds
On November 18, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation was forced to transfer City Zone Deputy Commissioner Hamendra Kumar after Home Minister Rajnath Singh found the zonal office filthy.
Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung on November 26 inspected government and municipal offices as well as hospitals. Mr. Jung found sanitation lacking and ordered action against three municipal officers. A show-cause notice was sent to Civil Lines Zone Deputy Commissioner Vijay Bidhuri and a warning to Shahdara (North) Deputy Commissioner Amjad Tak.
