A day after lieutenant- Governor Anil Baijal raised his reservation on introduction of Bill in the House to regularise 15,000 guest teachers, the Delhi Government on Wednesday ignored his objection and went ahead passing the Bill in the Delhi Assembly.
After being passed by the House through voice vote, the Bill “Regularisation of services of guest teachers and teachers engaged under the ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ Bill 2017” introduced in the Assembly by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in a special one-day session of the Assembly is now to be sent to the l-G for his approval.
The AAP Government’s stand is set to trigger a fresh row between the l-G and the Kejriwal Government. The l-G on Tuesday had said matters relating to services fall beyond the legislative competence of the legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi and that the proposed legislation was “not in accordance with the Constitutional scheme”.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a tirade against the l-G, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the bureaucracy, alleging a nexus among them.
The Opposition soon after which walked out to mark their protest.
Hitting out at the l-G for opposing the Bill, Kejriwal said, “What secrets were in these files that they cannot be shown to usIJ I want to tell the l-G that I am an elected Chief Minister of Delhi and not a terrorist and Sisodia is an elected Education Minister, not a terrorist.”
While taking a part in a discussion on the Bill, the CM said, “We are Delhi’s masters, not the bureaucracy.” His statement was greeted with loud cheers and table thumping by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MlAs.
Kejriwal further also alleged that the files relating to the regularisation of the teachers were never shown to Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio by the officials on the direction of the l-G.
AAP also took exception to Baijal’s objection that the Government did not consult the law Department before introducing the Bill.
“People did not elect the law secretary, they elected us. The country is run on democracy, not bureaucracy. They (bureaucrats) will follow our orders,” he said.
Since coming to power in 2015, the AAP and the bureaucracy have shared an uneasy relationship with frequent run over matters of jurisdiction, mainly due to the Capital’s administrative structure where the lG enjoys primacy over the elected CM.