Mayapuri sealing: poll duty of many officials cancelled

Pollution control body employees to work on holidays too

NEW DELHI, 13/07/2017: A view of National Green Tribunal (NGT) Office, Faridkot House, in New Delhi on Thursday. Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

The officials of Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) will be working on Friday (Good Friday, which is a holiday for other government offices), Saturday, and Sunday on the Mayapuri sealing case and other National Green Tribunal (NGT) cases. Also, election duties of many employees has been cancelled due to pending work.

On April 13, Delhi government agencies, including the DPCC and area Sub-Divisional Magistrate’s office, sealed shops involved in dismantling of vehicles in Mayapuri scrap market for causing pollution, following the NGT’s April 11 directions. The sealing drive lead to violence and both officials and traders were injured in it and it kicked up a political blame game.

“The office of DPCC shall remain open from April 19 to 21 (Good Friday, Saturday and Sunday) with work related to NGT cases,” an order dated Thursday, accessed by The Hindu said. It was also confirmed by senior officials of DPCC. “All officers/ officials of DPCC are directed to attended office on the mentioned date,” the order issued by the Administrative Office of DPCC Kashmiri Gate, read.

“We were working on last Saturday also because of the sealing in Mayapuri. Many of us had to go there on duty,” a DPCC official said.

Pending work

Election duty of many DPCC officials have been cancelled due to work on Mayauri and other NGT cases. “Our head had to write to the Election Commission to cancel my election duty as there is a lot of pending work here,” another employee of DPCC said, showing the letter written by her department head to the returning officer concerned.

After the violence, the High Court later got involved in the matter and there has been no sealing after it. DPCC officials said that there have been a lot of meetings within the DPCC and even with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the issue after the violence and it has kept them busy.

It also became controversial after Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the Environment Minister Imran Hussain was not informed by the officials about the sealing drive and action would be taken against them.