A day after the seeming thaw in relations between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s government and the bureaucracy hit a dead end, officers said they were waiting to be a part of a meeting to address security concerns expressed by them.
The AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories) IAS Association took to Twitter to take a step towards a possible resolution.
“#DelhiAtWork #NoToStrike In the context of Honble CM's assurance, we await formal communication for a meeting with him in the Delhi Secretariat. We reiterate that we continue to be at work” the Association tweeted from its official handle.
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Sources in the bureaucracy maintain that Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s insistence on the presence of Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal at such a meeting,
According to the sources, the Chief Secretary and not the LG was the head of the bureaucracy being the senior-most bureaucrat posted in the Delhi government.
The sit-inADVERTISEMENT
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The Hindu had reported that Mr. Baijal had made this submission to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Cabinet colleagues at a meeting last Monday, following which the sit-in by them at a visitor’s room in Raj Niwas began.
Bureaucrats, who have been demanding an apology from the Chief Minister for the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash at the Chief Minister’s residence in February, have also sought an assurance of their safety during meetings.
The AGMUT IAS Association convened an out of the ordinary press conference on Sunday to clarify its stand and refute allegations from the AAP government that the bureaucracy was on strike “for months”.
After their press conference, Mr. Kejriwal had said that he was the “head of the family” consisting of both government and bureaucracy, and he was willing to discuss issues relating to officers’ safety.