The AAP Government has directed all its Cabinet Ministers to attend weekly meetings of the heads of departments chaired by deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. This directive has come amid reports that the Government was getting a lukewarm response to several of its policy initiatives from the bureaucracy.
The weekly-meeting of the HODs had become a contentious issue in the recent past with the deputy Chief Minister deciding that he himself would chair these meetings. Earlier, these meetings used to be chaired by Chief Secretary to review the functioning various departments and ministries. Some IAS officers were reportedly not in favour of the deputy Chief Minister chairing their weekly meetings as they felt such a move would curtail their freedom to hold free and frank discussions on key issues.
“Officers cannot give their free and frank opinion in presence of their political bosses, whose priority is to fulfil the agenda of their respective parties,” a senior bureaucrat said.
Despite reservation from a section of bureaucrats, the deputy Chief Minister went ahead with his decision and started holding his weekly meetings on a regular basis. He even told his officers that they should be frank enough to discuss problems they had been facing in getting the key policies implemented in the city. He also made it clear that the weekly meetings should act as a catalyst to fast-track policy decisions.
Source in the Government said of late it was noticed that follow-ups were not been meticulously done on key policy initiatives. One of the reasons being cited for this was communication gap between the top bureaucrats and their respective ministers.
In an attempt to fast track policy implementation, the deputy Chief Minister has finally decided to call all the ministers to his weekly meetings so that the Government is able to implement its 70-point agenda in Delhi. “Once ministers and bureaucrats sit together, all loopholes can be rectified then and there itself. This will help the Government to speed up its works in different departments”, a senior official said.