Principal Secretary (power) Shakuntala Gamlin, a 1984 batch IAS officer, who had locked horns with the Arvind Kejriwal Government for not toeing its line on the land use issue, is back in the news.
While Gamlin is on leave, General Administration Department (GAD) of Delhi Government has put up the name plate of power secretary Sukesh Kumar Jain outside her room VIIIth floor at the Player’s Building. Gamlin is on leave for the past two months due to differences with Minister in charge Satyendra Jain. In a relative development, Gamlin has been promoted to additional secretary rank at the Centre and there is strong possibility that she could join Central Government on deputation.
Top sources said while differences between Gamlin and the Government had widened further, she went on a 40-day leave. She has now extended her leave for a month. In the meantime, the Government replaced her name plate and put up name plate of power secretary Sukesh Kumar Jain.
Sources said Gamlin has got her leave extended for another 30 days. According to sources, it seems that the Government has assumed that she won’t come back to Delhi. On other hand it is also a fact that Gamlin was keen to move out from Delhi Government and she had been lobbying for Central deputation. “This is a wrong precedent set by this Government. This is not a way to treat bureaucracy. The authorities should wait for her return,” said a Delhi Government official on the condition of anonymity.
Gamlin got embroiled in a series of controversies after Power Minister Satyendra Jain accused her of being soft towards the three power companies in Delhi. Gamlin alleged that Satyendra Jain who is also Industries Minister was pressurising her to bring a Cabinet proposal to convert lease hold to free hold in industrial areas. On the other hand, Jain had said Gamlin was in the process of issuing a letter of comfort” to a power company which would help it to secure money from financial institutions.
The matter took a political turn when Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, while addressing a rally of autorickshaw drivers, had openly accused her for working for private companies. Both the BJP and the Congress had criticised the Government for defaming a senior bureaucrat who belonged to North East region. Not only this, the Government had even asked her to withdraw herself from the panel, in which she had been recommended among two others, to look after the work of chief secretary KK Sharma, who had proceeded on a 10-day leave to visit his daughter in the United States.
Gamlin had gone on record saying that she was threatened to withdraw herself from the panel by none other that Kejriwal’s trusted lieutenant and secretary Rajendra Kumar. She had even threatened to take action against him. Finally, the AAP Government had agreed to handover the charge of the chief secretary for a period of 10 days to Gamlin.