Headlines
No end to standoff: Jung cancels postings, Kejriwal writes to Modi
New Delhi, May 20
The turf war between the AAP
government and the Lt. Governor escalated on Wednesday, as Najeeb Jung
cancelled all transfers and postings of bureaucrats done over the past
five days by the Delhi government, and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing the Centre of trying to
run his government by proxy.
The central government, however,
distanced itself from the controversy, saying Kejriwal and Jung should
meet to sort out their differences.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh met President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday, but denied that the standoff came up in the meeting.
"The
LG and the chief minister should sit together and find a solution,"
Rajnath Singh told reporters after his meeting with the President.
In his letter to Modi, Kejriwal asked the prime minister to let his democratically elected government "function independently".
Official
sources said Kejriwal accused the central government of trying to run
the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government through Jung.
The letter
came a day after Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia
complained to the President that Jung was interfering in the working of
the AAP government.
Earlier on Wednesday, Sisodia held a meeting
with bureaucrats and told them that orders of the Delhi government
should be followed.
"Sisodia told us that there was no trust
deficit between the bureaucracy and political executive. By citing
several articles of the Constitution, he tried to drive home the point
that it were the orders of the Kejriwal government that should be
followed," an official, who attended the meeting, told IANS.
Jung's
office issued a statement in the evening, making it clear that the Lt.
Governor alone was competent to approve transfers and postings of
principal secretary or secretary-level officers, in consultation with
the chief minister.
Sources said Sisodia responded by asking the
Lt. Governor as to which clauses of the Constitution give him the powers
to give directives to the Delhi government.
The Raj Nivas
statement said the Lt. Governor had received copies of orders and
communication passed over the past few days which had a bearing on the
transaction of business.
"These orders and communications have
obfuscated the special position that Delhi has as the national capital,
which is significantly different from other states. Delhi is a union
territory with a legislative assembly and not a state, and therefore has
important points of distinction," the release said.
The release
said the order issued by Sisodia on May 15 about the Delhi government's
supremacy in transfers and postings was "fundamentally at variance with
the constitution since service matters are assigned to the Lt. Governor
under the powers delegated to him by the President".
"The Lt.
Governor alone is competent to approve transfer and posting of principal
secretary/secretary level officers, in consultation with the chief
minister. This is so prescribed under order No. F. 57/3/94-S.I dated
09.04.1994, which holds even today," it said.
Referring to
Kejriwal's order of May 17 in which senior officials were asked "to put
up all files, including those in which the Lt. Governor has exclusive
jurisdiction, through ministers", the release said the Lt. Governor was
required under the Constitution to act, in his discretion, in
consultation with the chief minister where deemed necessary.
"The order of chief minister is in basic violation of this basic distinction."
It also referred to the controversy surrounding the removal of Anindo Majumdar as principal secretary (Services).
"The
Lt. Governor has reiterated the constitutional and rule position to the
chief minister and conveyed that the situation and procedure prior to
the issue of the letter dated 16.05.2015 shall continue," it said.
The
AAP government on Tuesday named Arvind Ray, an IAS officer removed by
the Lt. Governor from the post of secretary (home), as the secretary
(general administrative department).
The post of secretary (GAD)
was earlier held by Majumdar, who was on Monday locked out of his office
at the Delhi Secretariat on Kejriwal's orders for following Jung's fiat
to appoint Shakuntala Gamlin as acting chief secretary on May 15.
It
was Gamlin's elevation which dramatically triggered the worst
confrontation between Jung and the AAP government that had stormed to
power in February.
Meanwhile, former solicitor general Gopal
Subramanium on Wednesday said the Lt. Governor cannot overrule the state
government's decisions as this would "violate the constitutional
scheme".