DELHI BUREAUCRATS REFUSE TO OBEY DELHI GOVT’S ORDERS ON TRANSFERS, POSTINGS

The recent supreme court verdict giving the Delhi government of AAP led by Arvind Kejrival a clear hand to weild free power in Delhi without any interference of the LG execpt in the matters of Police, Law and Order and Land is being termed by them as a victory over the BJP ruled union government who according to them had been creating deliberate bottlenecks in the way of AAP government’s people welfare policies and initiatives through their nominee Anil Baijal, a former veteran civil servant.

However, despite the apex court according independent powers to the Delhi’s AAP government forbidding it to seek any consent on its decisions or proposals from the LG in the near future except in matters pertaining to land, police and law and orders, the Delhi civil servants have on the contrary refused to abide or obey the transfer/ posting orders of the Delhi government thus raising another fresh controversy. However, taking a strong view of the civil servants’ hostility the Delhi’s deputy chief minister has termed the non cooperation and hostility of bureaucrats as the violation of the apex court’s orders.

After the alleged attack on the Delhi’s chief secretary Anshul Prakash at the residence of the chief minister few months ago by two AAP MLAs’ when the former was asked to come for a meeting during midnight, the Delhi’s civil servants were feeling insecure and had gone on a go slow strike for three months giving up attending any meetings and answering the calls of the CM and his ministers thus compelling the latter and his three ministers to stage a nine day Dharna cum hunger strike at LG’s bungalow. This resulted in further chaos in the functioning of the AAP government.

The recent decision of the apex court has however given the Delhi government extra mileage as well as moral boost who was nearly handicapped in taking decisions with regard to the various people welfare schemes. The supreme court has, while giving its verdict, judiciously favoring the Delhi government of AAP to an extent has specifically said that the LG despite being the sole administrator of the National Capital Territory is bound to act on the advice of the council of ministers in all matters except on the subjects pertaining to the land, police and law & order ( if not necessary) as Delhi is not a full fledged state. The court however refused to give Delhi the statehood as its a central subject and solely within the purview of the union government which requires ratification from both the houses of parliament and the president of India’s outright consent.

The apex court has advised both the chief minister and the LG to work in close cordination harmoniously without any ill will or prejudiced feelings against each other.

It may be recalled that in its previous decision the Delhi High Court has termed the LG as the sole powerful administrative head of the Delhi government unambiguously saying that all decisions of the state government would be effected only by the consent and at the mercy of the LG as Delhi is not the fullfledged state. As a result the AAP government had gone to the apex court against the HC’s verdict.

After the formation of the Modi led NDA government at the centre the relations between the centre and Delhi had been at loggerheads with the Delhi CM Arvind Kejrival and his party AAP levelling charges and accusations against the prime minister Narendra Modi and his government of not letting them work deliberately and creating bottlenecks on the way of the state government’s functioning.

The former Delhi LG and renowned academician Nazeeb Jung and the current LG Anil Baijal were also at confrontation with Arvind Kejrival incessantly.

Let’s see what finally comes out of the latest verdict of the Supreme court unambiguously spelling out individual powers for Delhi’s LG and the CM in the context of Delhi government’s functioning.

While the Delhi elections are due in the initial months of 2020 both BJP and AAP are in a hurry to capture power in the national capital though the Congress Party seems to be a distant third.

After being completely misfit in the national political scene for the present, the first and formost priority of Arvind Kejrival is to recapture power in Delhi in the 2020 elections of NCT of Delhi and he is in an abrupt hurry to fulfill the unfulfilled pre election promises. He wanted to give good number of sops to the Delhi electorates but the BJP led NDA at the centre through its nominee LG are creating various impediments in the execution of various pro people proposals.

Since lot of time has already been lost on his quarrel with the centre and on infrastructural front the AAP government has literally done nothing Arvind Kejrival is desperate to implement various populist schemes to earn the support of the minorities, people of the lowest ebb, the lower middle class voters and the women and youths including the government servants. Health, transport, water, power, food and civil supplies, pensions to the poor, sr citizens, widows and handicapped sections are the main sectors where he is trying to concentrate by way of giving huge reliefs before elections. But in the absence of freedom and the obstacles of the centre he was’nt able to fully execute his decisions. Hence approached the apex court for seeking full fledged powers without the intervention of the central nominee, the LG. Let’s see whatwould be his next master stroke now?