Shaken by the alleged beating of the Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, civil servants have embarked upon a series of meetings with the top functionaries of the Union Government to put across their grievances, A joint forum of employees and officers of the Delhi Government on Saturday met Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha to raise the issue of alleged assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash and apprised him about the “difficult working condition” prevailing in the AAP dispensation.
In the meeting, the episode over the past few years and the immediate one with Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash were detailed, the forum said in a statement.
The meeting with country’s top bureaucrat came days after Prakash was allegedly assaulted by some AAP MlAs in front of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia at the CM’s residence on the intervening night of February 19-20.
“The Cabinet Secretary gave a patient hearing to all officials and officers present and acknowledged that they are working in a difficult environment.
“He assured all employees of complete administrative and moral support. However, he cautioned that citizens should not be put to inconvenience and delivery of services should go on, to which all the officers assured complete dedication,” the statement stated.
The officers reiterated that that they will continue to work through formal written channels of communication, and observe a peaceful silent protest of five minutes at lunchtime 1:30 pm till the political executive takes tangible action to assure them that their personal dignity and safety will be assured during meetings.
On Friday, a Delhi Police had reached Kejriwal’s official residence and seized a hard disk containing CCTV recordings in connection with the alleged assault incident.
The Chief Minister along with his cabinet colleagues knocked at the lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s doors to ensure that the Government’s work was not hit due to the boycott by bureaucrats.
The meeting between Baijal and Kejriwal lasted for just 5 minutes and both had agreed to ensure that the working of the Government was not affected.
It may be noted that the bureaucrats had adopted a resolution post the assault on the chief secretary that they will not attend meeting called by the ministers and will only communicate through official channels.
This has led to administration coming to a grinding halt.
Concerned over this development, Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia along with other ministers had met Baijal for the normalization of Government work in the secretariat.