Breaking their silence on the alleged attack on Chief Secretary (CS) Anshu Prakash by Aam Aadmi Party MLAs at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence on Monday night, Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal on Friday condemned the incident while Mr. Kejriwal said protests by officials had affected the government’s work.
Mr. Baijal met Mr. Kejriwal, along with five Ministers, at Raj Niwas on Friday, at the end of a work week that has seen protests by the bureaucracy affect the work of the Delhi government.
The CM and his Cabinet members met the L-G to discuss the issue of “manhandling” of Mr. Prakash, and attack on Environment Minister Imran Hussain at the Delhi Secretariat, a statement from Raj Niwas read.
Mr. Baijal condemned the incidents and said they were most unfortunate.
“No government can fulfil its promises to the people if the employees feel demoralised and insecure... there is no place for violence in a democratic and civilised society,” he said.
Mr. Baijal added that there was a need for measures to “remove mistrust” between government employees and the elected representatives.
‘Must work together’
After the meeting, the CM tweeted: “Officers not attending meetings for last 3 days. Governance suffering. I m v concerned. LG assured he will take all steps to ensure officers started functioning normally. Council of ministers assured him all cooperation. All of us need to work together for betterment of Delhi [sic]”.
Addressing a press conference at the CM’s residence, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said both Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Baijal had agreed to talk to the officials, who have been protesting by restricting communication with the political executive.
When asked whether Mr. Kejriwal would apologise, which is a demand made by the protesting government employees, Mr. Sisodia said: “The incident of that day is being narrated incorrectly”. On Tuesday, Mr. Sisodia had termed the allegation of the Chief Secretary “baseless”.
Mr. Kejriwal has not yet commented on what happened on Monday night.
‘Meetings boycotted’
Mr. Sisodia said that the Cabinet had given Mr. Baijal a list of meetings that officials had boycotted this week. Eight meetings and events were skipped by officials, while Mr. Prakash missed a National Green Tribunal-ordered meeting between the chief secretaries of Haryana and Delhi on Tuesday. The meeting was meant to discuss the ongoing crisis of high ammonia levels in the raw water supply from Haryana to Delhi.
The Chief Secretary, along with two other officers, were also supposed to appear before the Delhi Assembly’s Questions and Reference Committee on Wednesday, but they did not turn up.
A meeting of the Education Department, called by Mr. Sisodia on Friday, was also not attended by officials. Meanwhile, the Finance Secretary refused to attend a meeting with Mr. Sisodia, who is also the Finance Minister, on Friday.
