Trust deficit reason for government, bureaucrats divide

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s first year in office has been marked with one controversy after another due to trust deficit exhibited by his ministers towards their bureaucrats over day-to-day functioning and decision making on a host of contentious issues concerning the national capital.

The divide between the AAP government and the bureaucracy reached its peak when Danics officers recently proceeded on a day’s leave in protest against the suspension of two special secretaries in the home department. Even IAS officers joined their protest by proceeding on a half-day leave. The AAP government for the first time saw city ministers directing junior officers to directly report to them by bypassing their concerned secretaries and principal secretaries. Also, for the first time, PWD engineer-in-chief Sarvagya Srivastava was given charge of the PWD secretary — the post generally held by only senior bureaucrats.

On its part, the AAP government first tried to promote Danics officers over senior IAS bureaucrats. Once the government started having differences with the Danics officers, it started promoting DASS cadre personnel.

The differences between the AAP government and the bureaucrats have been increasing with each day. The bitterness between the two started when Mr Kej-riwal humiliated his principal secretary (power) Shakuntala D. Gamlin in a public meeting by levelling allegations against her. The officer even complained to lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung that she was being pressured by the CM’s principal secretary and city minister Satyendar Jain to free-hold certain industrial plots in Delhi. The anti-corruption branch also filed a case against principal secretary (urban development) Chetan Bhushan Sanghi in a similar matter.

The AAP government even transferred senior IAS officer Anindo Majumdar from the services department for issuing order for the acting chief secretary as per the instructions of the L-G and for acting against the wishes of the CM. The officer was humiliated by disallowing him to enter office, which was locked up by the administration.

Another senior bureaucrat, Arvind Ray, was transferred and humiliated for issuing transfer and posting orders of senior officers of the Delhi police as per the approval of the L-G. The officer was targeted as he had reportedly acted against the wishes of the CM.

Senior IAS officer Dharampal was transferred for issuing transfer and posting of a joint commissioner of ACB as per approval of the competent authority, but against the wishes of the CM. The government even appointed principal secretary Rajendra Kumar as the home secretary. At that time, Mr Dharampal was the principal secretary (home). This was also the first occasion when two IAS officers were discharging the duties of the head of the home wing.

IAS officer Geetanjali Gupta was transferred from the post of the transport commissioner to a lower rank in the Delhi State Services Selection Board, which is generally manned by junior bureaucrats.