Citing instances where senior bureaucrats at the helm of Delhi government departments were not making themselves available for communication with MLAs, Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta has written to Chief Secretary Dharmendra about how heads of government departments under them should deal with newly-elected legislators. Gupta alleged that officers “don’t even acknowledge” MLAs’ letters and calls. Delhi’s bureaucracy was often seen at odds with the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
In his letter on Wednesday, Gupta sought the Chief Secretary’s attention to the procedure and protocol to be adhered to by the government officers while dealing with the members of the Assembly. Terming it “a serious matter,” Gupta said, “This is with reference to the procedure and protocol norms to be adhered by the government officers and officials while dealing with the Hon’ble Members of the Delhi Legislative Assembly. A few instances have been brought to my notice where the communications of the Members in the form of letters, phone calls or messages have not even been acknowledged by the concerned officer.”
Gupta said he expected that all administrative secretaries, head of departments, Delhi Police, DDA and other agencies would be asked to follow a strict compliance to the norms. “…Action taken in this regard may be intimated to me at the earliest,” he said. The Speaker also sought to be updated about action taken in the matter.
Reacting to Gupta’s letter, AAP leader and former minister Saurabh Bharadwaj took a dig at the BJP, accusing them of enabling bureaucratic defiance for years. “For a decade, BJP taught Delhi officers to ignore ministers and MLAs don’t take their calls, don’t respond to letters. Now, when the BJP is in power, they are experiencing the same. Earlier, BJP defended these officials, and now they are trying to discipline them,” Saurabh Bharadwaj remarked.
It’s likely to be a wake-up call for Delhi government officials, who seem to have largely disregarded MLAs and even ministers under the previous AAP government. Since the services weren’t under the Union government, officials were said to often disregard AAP leaders with impunity. With the BJP now in power in Delhi, the bureaucracy is expected to align with the new administration and heed the elected government and lawmakers, and Gupta’s letter serves as a reminder of just this.
The Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure lays down instructions for prompt disposal of references from Members of Parliament and State Legislatures.
It instructs that communications received from a Member of Parliament/State Legislature should be attended to promptly. Any Information sought by a Member of Parliament and State Legislature should be supplied, unless it is of such a nature that it would have been denied to him, it instructs further.
The guidelines concerning official dealings between Administration and Members of Parliament and State Legislatures have been issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and reiterated from time to time. The provisions of the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure regarding prompt disposal of communications from MPs have also been reiterated from time to time. However, keeping in view the instances of occasional non-observance of the above guidelines, a need was felt by the Committee of Privileges of the Lok Sabha for consolidating and reiterating the existing instructions.
According to standard operating procedures, such communication received from a Member of Parliament, a member of public, a recognised association or a public body will be acknowledged within 15 days, followed by a reply within the next 15 days of the acknowledgement sent.
In the recent assembly polls, the BJP won the 48 out of 70 seats, bringing an end to AAP’s rule in the capital. With BJP now in power, the tensions between officials and elected representatives appear to be surfacing again this time from within the ruling party.
