Senior IAS officers of AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre are trying to exit from the Delhi Government. There are over two dozen officers who have already gone on Central deputation while another half a dozen are awaiting posting.
One of the key reasons why most of these officers are for Central deputation is primarily being attributed to the hostile conditions being created by the AAP Government against the bureaucrats over a host of issues in the past several months.
There have been occasions when some senior bureaucrats had even raised fingers at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Cabinet colleagues for interfering in their day-to-day decision making.
Top sources told The Pioneer that this was the first occasion that over two dozen IAS officials are on Central Government deputation and half of dozen are not reluctant to work with the Delhi Government due to their dictatorial attitude. “There is no respect or regard for bureaucracy in the AAP Government. There is no freedom at all. They are not ready to listen to our point of view. Even Chief Secretary doesn’t protect officers,” said a bureaucrat who is awaiting Central deputation.
Sources said many bureaucrats were unwilling to work with the AAP administration. As a result, the Kejriwal Government has been banking more on a handful of bureaucrats, which is said to have affected the day-to-day policy and decision making in the city. Not only this, there has been an open war between Players Building and Raj Niwas over the transfer and posting of several senior bureaucrats.
While Kejriwal’s Cabinet colleagues have been directing bureaucrats not to route their files through Raj Niwas, lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung had on several occasions termed the orders issued by the Government as null and void.
Things had come to such a pass in the past that the Government had even sealed the office of a senior bureaucrat for not following the instructions of the Chief Minister and issuing orders as per the instructions of the l-G.
At one point of time, the Home Department was being headed by two senior bureaucrats — one reporting to the Chief Minister and the other to the l-G. In one case, the AAP Government had informed the MHA that they had already transferred Dharampal three months back and refused to relieve him. He was relieved after intervention of the MHA.
The bureaucrats who are on Central deputation are 1985-batch IAS officer MM Kutty, who is serving as the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, 1983-batch JK Dadoo of is the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, Arun Goel (1985) is Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Revenue, Reena Ray (1984) is with the Embassy of Belgium.
Others are Dharmendra Sharma (1988), who is Joint Secretary in the National Defence College, G Nagendra Kumar (1989) is Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Debashree Mukherjee (1991) is Joint Secretary in the PMO, Manish Kumar Gupta (1991) is Joint Secretary in the Ministry of labour.
Prashant Goyal (1990) is Joint Secretary in the Finance Department, Varsha Joshi (1995) is Joint Secretary in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Santosh Dattatraya Vaidya (1998) is Director in the PMO, Amit Singla (2003) is Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Vikas Anand (2002) is the Private Secretary to the Minister of State in the Home Ministry, Dharampal (1988) is the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Sanjiv Kumar (1992) is the Joint Secretary in the Finance Ministry, Sanjay Kumar Sruivastava (1980) is the Secretary in the Cabinet Secreteriat, Naini Jayaseelan (1980) is the Secretary in the Home Ministry, Jalaj Srivastava (1984) is the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Satbir Silas Bedi (1986) is the Joint Secretary in the Human Resource and Development, Nutan Guha Biswas (1983) is the Additional Secretary in the Women and Child Development Depart-ment, Gyanesh Bharati (1988) is the Director in the Ministry of Power, Prashant Goyal (1993) is the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Manish Kumar Gupta (1991) is the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of labour and Employment and KM Appu who is also on the Central deputation.