Sacking of 400 specialists will strangulate Delhi: Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal criticized Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena for firing 400 specialists hired by the Delhi government, including 116 Delhi legislative assembly fellows. Kejriwal called the move unconstitutional and said it would hamper government services. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will challenge the LG's order in court. The LG's office said the appointments were made in a non-transparent manner. The Delhi legislative assembly also issued an order sacking the 116 specialists, but later withdrew it. The status of the specialists remains unclear.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday slammed lieutenant governor VK Saxena for sacking 400 “specialists” hired by the Delhi government, including 116 Delhi legislative assembly fellows, and said that the move would hamper government services.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday slammed lieutenant governor VK Saxena for sacking the 400 “specialists” hired by the Delhi government, including the 116 Delhi legislative assembly fellows. (HT Photo)

“This will completely strangulate Delhi govt and its services. I don’t know what does Hon’ble LG achieve by doing all this? I hope Hon’ble SC immediately quashes it,” Kejriwal tweeted.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) , too, termed the move “unconstitutional”. Party spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said the government will challenge the LG’s order in the court. On July 3 (Monday), the LG terminated the services of around 400 specialists appointed by the Delhi government as advisors, fellows, consultants, and senior research officers across 23 departments and agencies in the Capital.

The LG office said the appointments were done in a “non-transparent manner”.

Two days after the LG sacked the personnel, the services department issued an order stopping the services of all specialists appointed without the LG’s approval on Wednesday. “All the departments shall immediately stop engagements of all the fellows wherein approval of the LG has not been obtained... Finance Department shall direct all the PAOs not to release salary...” according to the order by services department.

Shortly after the order was issued, the Delhi legislative assembly also issued an order sacking 116 people -- part of the 400 to be removed from the posts by the LG. “In pursuance of services department letter... the engagement of following Fellows, Associate Fellows and Associate Fellows (Media) under Delhi Assembly Research Centre (DARC) in Delhi Legislative Assembly is hereby discontinued with immediate effect....” said Thursday’s order by Sadanand Sah, deputy secretary, DARC.

However, within a few hours, Sah issued another order saying the earlier order to be kept in abeyance. The status of the 116 specialists, therefore, remained unclear. Delhi assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel said the order was withdrawn because the specialists were not employed by the assembly. “The fellows will continue to work till further order. They are working on fellowship with the assembly for two years and they are not in any service. The rules of reservation do not apply to these programmes,” said Goel.

Meanwhile, the finance department issued an order on Monday directing to not release the salary of those engaged as “specialists”.

In a press conference on Thursday, AAP’s Kakkar slammed the LG over the sacking of specialists. “In spite of giving jobs, the Modi government has terminated the jobs of 437 specialists working with the Delhi government,” said Kakkar.

The LG office did not respond to requests for comment.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said: “AAP is frustrated because most of those sacked were working for the party and drawing salary from Delhi government.”