LG, Dy CM tussle over appointing principals

The LG’s office criticised DoE for its “apathy and inaction” in its failure to fill the vacant posts, seemingly opening up a new source of friction in the ongoing tussle between Saxena and the ruling AAP

New Delhi Lieutenant governor VK Saxena on Saturday put on hold a proposal to abolish 244 posts of principals and deputy education officers (DEOs), as proposed by Delhi government’s Department of Education (DoE), while clearing the revival of 126 such posts. The LG’s office also criticised the DoE for its “apathy and inaction” in its failure to fill the vacant posts, seemingly opening up a new source of friction in the ongoing tussle between Saxena and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also holds the education portfolio in the AAP government. (PTI)

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia hit back, saying the allegations were “a blatant attempt to hide the fact that the central government and the LG office has stalled the appointment of principals in Delhi government schools for more than seven years”.

DoE officials did not respond to Saxena’s remarks.

The LG office said that the directions related to these 370 posts -- 244 which were to be abolished and 126 revived -- are likely to help the “woefully short-staffed” DoE.

“LG VK Saxena has approved the revival of 126 posts that had lapsed due to the fact that they were lying vacant for more than two years. He has also put on hold an education department proposal to abolish 244 posts of Principal and Deputy Education Officer since the said posts had also been lying vacant for more than five years,” a senior Raj Niwas official said.

The official said the services department has advised the administrative response department to carry out a comprehensive study while noting that “the post of a principal is a crucial post for the functioning of DoE and in this way, the exercise of abolition and creation of posts need not be taken up time and again”.

The official said that government rules provide for posts lying vacant for more than two years to be “deemed abolished”, and for those lying vacant for more than five years to be “considered abolished”. “These 370 posts were supposed to have been filled through promotion as per the recruitment rules by the DoE between 2014 and 2019. It speaks extremely negative of the functioning of the DoE that none of these posts were filled through promotion and were allowed to remain vacant, thereby inviting provisions for abolishing them,” the official said.

In his response addressed to the LG’s office, Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said that after forming the government in 2015, the AAP had approached the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to fill vacant posts of principals.

“In the meantime, the services department was unconstitutionally taken away from the elected government and handed over to LG. Effectively it was LG who was responsible for these appointments and was supposed to act promptly to get these appointments done. We held series of meetings with services department but they were under direct instructions to not expedite the process,” Sisodia claimed.

The deputy chief minister said he welcomes the revival of 126 posts, but the LG should give a date by which the remaining 244 posts will be revived. “What kind of so called comprehensive study will add more value to the fact that principal is needed in a school which is functioning without a principal? First he has stalled the foreign travel of teachers to attend a training in Finland and now he wants to abolish 244 posts of school principals under the false claim of reviving 126 posts.” he said.