Gamlin on Thursday, was told to take additional charge of the acting chief secretary as KK Sharma, the current chief secretary had proceeded on 10 day-leave to the United States. In a scathing response, the AAP government accused the LG of acting in an unconstitutional manner by giving additional charge of the CS to the officer.
There seems to be no end to the ongoing battle between Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and the Aam Aadmi Party government with senior bureaucrat and principal secretary (power) Shakuntala Gamlin, being appointed as the acting Chief Secretary by the LG office. The move came after Gamlin wrote a complaint to the LG that she was allegedly being intimidated and blackmailed by senior officials of the state government so that she would withdraw from the race to become the acting chief secretary.
Gamlin on Thursday, was told to take additional charge of the acting chief secretary as KK Sharma, the current chief secretary had proceeded on 10 day-leave to the United States. In a scathing response, the AAP government accused the LG of acting in an unconstitutional manner by giving additional charge of the CS to the officer.
In her complaint to the LG, which was later forwarded to the Union Ministry, Gamlin had accused Kejriwal's Secretary Rajendra Kumar of asking her not be in race for the post. She also accused the AAP government of casting aspersions on her integrity to service and levelling false charges.
"The Lt Governor by-passed the elected Government, the chief minister and deputy chief minister (who also acts as the Minister in-charge of Services department). The Lt Governor does not have the extraordinary powers under the Constitution to bypass the elected Government and issue instructions directly to the Secretaries, whatever be the provocation," said a government official.
In a statement released by the government in the evening, it said that the step to give the additional charge of Chief Secretary to Gamlin was done in a "extra-ordinary manner",
"The Government of NCT of Delhi had certain reservations about the conduct of Smt. Shakuntala Gamlin because of which the Government was hesitant to given the additional charge of Chief Secretary to her. She was perceived to be extremely close to electricity companies in Delhi and was lobbying for their interests within the Government.
However, the Honorable Lieutenant Governor, in a completely unconstitutional manner appointed Shakuntala Gamlin, to this position".
In a response to the official statement by the AAP government, the LG office late in the evening responded that the LG being representative of State Authority in Delhi under Article 239 AA of the Constitution of India is competent to designate the officiating Chief Secretary in consultation with the Honourable Chief Minister.
"The file for the posting of the officiating Chief Secretary was submitted to the Lt. Governor on the evening of 13 May 2015 and was cleared immediately. He approved the name of Ms Shakuntala Gamlin as against the name proposed by the Honorable Chief Minister considering she was senior and has a proven track record. The name proposed by the Honorable Chief Minister did not figure in the list of names submitted by the Services Department and the concerned officer has not even been given a posting by the Delhi Government so far," the statement read.
What remains to be seen is how secretariat is going to function with so many words already being exchanged between the concerned parties.
Evoking that the concerned official was a 'lady from 'North east', the LG office said that it regretted the way her name was dragged into the whole issue."There was nothing on file submitted to the Lt. Governor that indicated that the government had anything against Ms. Gamlin and the Lt. Governor regrets the name of a senior officer being brought in public domain in such a manner, that too a lady officer and one belonging to the North East," said the statement.
Earlier this month Najeeb Jung and Arvind Kejriwal were seen at loggerheads with each other after an AAP government notification asking its officials not to route files through the LG's office.
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