With Delhi Chief Secretary (CS) KK Sharma on leave till May 23, the confusion prevailed in administrative circles regarding who would be the Acting CS in Sharma’s absence. The Delhi Government’s Service Department has not issued any order till Thursday evening in this regard.
Contrary to established practice, Players Building for the first time functioned without administrative head (without CS) on Thursday. The Secretariat had no administrative head as the AAP Government could not finalise the name of the acting Chief Secretary to discharge the responsibilities of Sharma, who has proceeded on a 10-day leave to the United States. CS is the administrative head of the Government. As per general practice, the Governments designate the seniormost officers as the acting Chief Secretary in the absence of Chief Secretary.
Top sources told The Pioneer that uncertainty prevailed over the acting CS in the absence of Sharma. The source said that the file related to the post of the acting CS has been shuttling between the offices of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung.
“This is the first time that there is no administrative head of the Government. This also reflects great trust deficit between the administration and the elected Government as the State Government is unable to designate any senior officer to take the reins of administration in the absence of the CS. This is also an indication that stalemate continued between Raj Niwas and Players Building,” said the source.
When asked, a former CS of Delhi said on the condition of anonymity that if there was no acting CS, then all files should be routed to the concerned Ministers. “But what would happen to the Vigilance and Home Department filesIJ” he questioned. The Services Department is said to have recommended to the Government a panel of four bureaucrats for the post of the Acting Chief Secretary. The names of bureaucrats recommended to the Government are Naini Jayaseelan of 1980 batch, Arvind Ray, Shakuntala D Gamlin and SP Singh (all of the 1984 batch).
While the AAP Government had recently removed Ray from the post of the Principal Secretary (Home), Singh was appointed as the Secretary to the SC/ST and OBC commission. Jayaseelan has been given charge of the Financial Commissioner and Gamlin has been appointed as the Principal Secretary (Power). There is also a serious battle going on between the lG and the CM over the routing of files of the Delhi Police, the DDA and other key bodies in the national Capital. A senior officer said that the CM and the lG should either have an open dialogue to sort out the matter, or President Pranab Mukherjee should clearly demarcate their jurisdiction.
He said the third option was that the Supreme Court should act suo motu and decide the matter once and for all. The ongoing tussle between the CM and the lieutenant Governor has had a cascading impact on the Government’s top bureaucracy as it has added an element of doubt regarding clarity over the chain of command.
It became murkier after the CM Office issued a showcause notices to top officials including the CS. This has led to a war of words between Jung and Kejriwal, with the lieutenant Governor expressing shock over the CM’s “language of communication” in showcause notices issued to bureaucrats.
In a letter to Kejriwal, the lieutenant Governor has asserted that he was “appalled” at Kejriwal’s language, imputing that orders related to transfers and postings of police officers were passed without presenting the file to the Chief Minister in a “secret, clandestine and surreptitious manner”.
After Jung’s letter, Kejriwal hit back with a letter the same day. Holding up the rule book, he said he had every right to question any official who may be found to be working in defiance of the law and that the lG’s assertion that the CM cannot do so as he is neither the appointing, nor cadre controlling authority was not in keeping with the Constitution.