Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot allegedly misbehaved with Transport Commissioner Varsha Joshi and threatened to “get her arrested for corruption” at a meeting here on Friday evening, government sources claimed.
Declines to comment
Ms. Joshi declined to comment on the issue while Mr. Gahlot denied any misbehaviour on his part and described the incident as a mere verbal disagreement over an answer to a question to be tabled in the Delhi Legislative Assembly during its upcoming session scheduled to commence on Monday.
Leader of the Opposition Vijender Gupta, however, alleged that Mr. Gahlot was “guilty of humiliating, harassing and mentally torturing a senior woman IAS officer”.
The joint forum of the Association of Transport Department, which represents government employees who are a part of the unit, issued a statement in support of Ms. Joshi.
The forum said it was “greatly pained” over Mr. Gahlot’s “misbehaviour...with an upright and honest woman officer” in addition to the Transport Minister having “insulted her in presence of more than 30 subordinate officers”.
It also pointed out that this was the second time that Ms. Joshi, the Transport Commissioner-cum-Secretary, had been meted out such treatment by a member of the political executive after having been “shunted” out of a Cabinet meeting by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, recently.
“The Transport Minister has finalised a scheme to hire 1,000 low-floor buses without calling any tender from a particular private vendor, which Ms. Joshi objected to because there were both legal and procedural lacunae and requested the Minister to reconsider his decision which incensed him,” said a government source present in the meeting.
The government sources said the incident took place at Mr. Gahlot’s conference room around 4 p.m. on Friday.
“After this, Mr. Gahlot pulled Ms. Joshi up for stating, in an answer to a question on alleged irregularities at the Burari Transport Authority to be tabled in the Delhi Assembly in its upcoming session, that no irregularities were found and a complaint by a visitor alleging the problem of touts at the facility was the subject of an ongoing investigation,” the source said further.
This, said another source, angered the Transport Minister who asked her to “leave the meeting because her presence was not required” following which she proceeded to the exit.
Shielding touts
“Before she left the room, the Minister told her that she seemed to want to shield touts at transport offices and the government could get her arrested for corruption as and when it decided to. In early July, the Chief Minister had meted out similar treatment to her after ordering that the CCTV cameras in the room where it was being held be switched off,” the source claimed.
Mr. Gupta strongly condemned the incident. “While Mr. Kejriwal is supporting a march at Jantar Mantar for the honour and safety of women, on the other hand his Ministers are leaving no stone unturned in humiliating, harassing and mentally torturing senior women IAS officers,” he alleged.
Blown out of proportion
On his part, Mr. Gahlot said the issue was being blown out of proportion.
“There was simply a verbal disagreement over the answer to an Assembly question. How can a senior officer from the department state, on record, that no discrepancies were found at the Burari Transport Authority when, in fact, it is a matter of record that these came to light, and even led to the Chief Minister taking note of it,” he said.
The Transport Minister further clarified, “The issue of a private vendor for buses which are to be procured was not the issue at all. The disagreement was only on the answer that is to be tabled not by the Department but by me in person, which, if false, amounts to a dishonour of the House and has repercussions. The proliferation of touts at such facilities is evident,” he added.
