NEW DELHI: LG’s office said on Saturday that several officials working in the Delhi government and MCD had complained of harassment by the AAP extension pantry in Delhi as well as in Punjab in recent months.
While two complaints were received earlier this year, six, the LG’s office said, were received after May 11, when the Supreme Court handed over control of utilities issues in the national capital to the chosen dispensation. The complainants said the AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab had begun persecuting them and their family members in retaliation against party officials, it was alleged.
Among those who have complained are five IAS officers: Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar; Services Secretary Ashish Madhorao More; special secretaries Kinny Singh and YVVJ Rajasekhar; and power secretary Shoorbir Singh – IPS official and head of the anti-corruption branch Madhur Verma; IRS Officer & Chief Assessor & Collector at MCD Kunal Kashyap Domestic Tax Department; and Amitabh Joshi, Danics Ad Hoc Officer and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Services.
Shoorbir Singh and Madhur Verma, who belong to Punjab, said their families were being targeted in their home state. Singh, the LG office said, has also addressed the Punjab High Court against the alleged harassment of his family.
No immediate reaction was forthcoming from the AAP government.
While the AAP government and bureaucracy have been at loggerheads for some time now with the elected dispensation often complaining of insubordination and lack of cooperation, their working relationship has deteriorated after last week the constitutional panel of the apex court ruled that the Delhi government will have direct control over officials posted to the capital.
Of the eight officers who reported harassment, the cases of four stem from the government’s desire to remove Services Secretary More from his post and to call a meeting of the Civil Services Board, chaired by the Chief Secretary, to decide on the transfer and the detachment of officers.
Delhi Services Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Friday that Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar had threatened to kill him on May 16 in the prime minister’s chamber at the Delhi Secretariat. The top Delhi bureaucrat, however, was quoted as saying in a letter to LG that the charges were an afterthought following his alleged misconduct with service department officers.
Shoorbir Singh is alleged to have claimed that his family in Punjab had been persecuted as he opposed the appointment of two private persons to the board of two private distribution companies as government candidates.
Madhur Verma is also said to have alleged similar treatment when he took action against Delhi council chairman Waqf and Okhla MLA Amantullah Khan in an alleged corruption case.
Kashyap said the mayor sent a note against him to the MCD commissioner complaining that he was softening in a housing tax evasion case.
While two complaints were received earlier this year, six, the LG’s office said, were received after May 11, when the Supreme Court handed over control of utilities issues in the national capital to the chosen dispensation. The complainants said the AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab had begun persecuting them and their family members in retaliation against party officials, it was alleged.
Among those who have complained are five IAS officers: Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar; Services Secretary Ashish Madhorao More; special secretaries Kinny Singh and YVVJ Rajasekhar; and power secretary Shoorbir Singh – IPS official and head of the anti-corruption branch Madhur Verma; IRS Officer & Chief Assessor & Collector at MCD Kunal Kashyap Domestic Tax Department; and Amitabh Joshi, Danics Ad Hoc Officer and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Services.
Shoorbir Singh and Madhur Verma, who belong to Punjab, said their families were being targeted in their home state. Singh, the LG office said, has also addressed the Punjab High Court against the alleged harassment of his family.
No immediate reaction was forthcoming from the AAP government.
While the AAP government and bureaucracy have been at loggerheads for some time now with the elected dispensation often complaining of insubordination and lack of cooperation, their working relationship has deteriorated after last week the constitutional panel of the apex court ruled that the Delhi government will have direct control over officials posted to the capital.
Of the eight officers who reported harassment, the cases of four stem from the government’s desire to remove Services Secretary More from his post and to call a meeting of the Civil Services Board, chaired by the Chief Secretary, to decide on the transfer and the detachment of officers.
Delhi Services Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Friday that Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar had threatened to kill him on May 16 in the prime minister’s chamber at the Delhi Secretariat. The top Delhi bureaucrat, however, was quoted as saying in a letter to LG that the charges were an afterthought following his alleged misconduct with service department officers.
Shoorbir Singh is alleged to have claimed that his family in Punjab had been persecuted as he opposed the appointment of two private persons to the board of two private distribution companies as government candidates.
Madhur Verma is also said to have alleged similar treatment when he took action against Delhi council chairman Waqf and Okhla MLA Amantullah Khan in an alleged corruption case.
Kashyap said the mayor sent a note against him to the MCD commissioner complaining that he was softening in a housing tax evasion case.
