The Arvind Kejriwal Government is planning to set up a specialised wing to keep tabs on functioning of various departments and bodies in the national Capital, according to sources.
Top sources told The Pioneer that with the Government's repeated failure to wrest its control over the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) which is being headed by joint commissioner of police M K Meena, who reports directly to lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, it is now mulling the idea of creating a new spying wing within its vigilance branch to keep an eye on its various entities.
"A decision for setting up of the specialised cell was reportedly taken at a recent Cabinet meeting in which the Vigilance department was directed to come up with a concrete proposal about the formation of the new unit. Two or three models are being deliberated by the vigilance department and most suitable will be placed before council of Ministers for approval. Consensus is yet to be evolved on how and what would be the mechanism of functioning of this specialised spying wing," said the sources.
The new unit would comprise of both serving and retired officials whose mandate would be to gather relevant information and actionable feedback regarding the working of the departments, autonomous bodies, institutions and other entities which are under the control of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, said sources.
"The Delhi Cabinet was of the view that vigilance department needed to be strengthened as there was an urgent need to improve the monitoring mechanism of activities of various departments in vigilance related matters. The new unit will reportedly be set up within the vigilance department and its initial strength could be of about 50 officers," said sources.
Earlier, after its controversial proposal to procure high-end equipment for surveillance, the AAP Government had tried to set up a parallel system to keep tabs on the programmes and functioning of the departments and their officials from top to bottom.
A proposal to this effect was even moved by the Home Department, which had suggested setting up of 25 monitoring and evaluation units, each consisting of a team leader, one office assistant and five field staff.
The department had proposed that these teams be supervised by five directors. It had also suggested that a project director should be the head of the whole project.
The Home Department had proposed that the wing should function under its supervision. However, the project was put on hold after media criticism.