Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal came out in strong support of Magsaysay Award-winner and whistleblower-bureaucrat Sanjeev Chaturvedi here on Saturday, days before the latter’s official stint in the national Capital is scheduled to end.
The final denial of the 2002-batch Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer’s inter-cadre deputation request to the Delhi government by the Prime Minister-led Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) earlier this week found mention in Mr. Kejriwal’s first tweet for the day.
That Mr. Chaturvedi, who is currently posted as the Chief Vigilance Officer at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, be relieved to supplement its anti-graft efforts, happened to be the first official request made by the newly-formed Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government of the BJP-led Centre in February last year before transforming into the maiden tussle between the two.
“An officer requested by a CM for his personal staff was never denied earlier. Hurdles being created at each step (Sic.)” Mr. Kejriwal tweeted, quoting a media report on the ACC’s denial to allow Mr. Chaturvedi to work as an Officer on Special Deputation (OSD) in his office. The IFS official’s deputation at the AIIMS ends on early next week on June 28.
‘Yet another blow’According to sources close to Mr. Kejriwal, the development, which came in the wake of reports that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was returning 14 Bills passed by the Delhi Legislative Assembly back to it for clarification was interpreted “as yet another blow to ensure that the AAP government’s work and ambitions over the last year was rendered utterly fruitless”.
This comes even as one of his party’s legislators was arrested by the police in the middle of a live press conference which the Chief Minister and senior government functionaries alleged was symptomatic of an “unsaid emergency” in Delhi, courtesy Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Close to Deputy CMConsidered a close confidante of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and awarded the Magsaysay Award in 2015 for “outstanding public service”, Mr. Chaturvedi was poised to be a key figure in the AAP government’s vigilance hierarchy and was hand-picked by Mr. Kejriwal to be handed the reins of its anti-graft initiatives.
However, this was not to be despite numerous petitions and efforts by him at various avenues and even written requests and reminders to the Centre by even Mr. Kejriwal over the last 16 months.
In an order dated June 21, the ACC rejected Mr. Chaturvedi’s request to transfer from the Uttarakhand cadre to the government of Delhi who must now, as per the same order, undergo a mandatory three-year cooling period.
