IAS officers having problem with govt should leave Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday asked the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers having problem with his government to leave Delhi.

Hitting out at senior bureaucrats for going on mass leave to protest the suspension of their colleagues, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday he was ready to throw them out of Delhi if they didn’t want to work in his government.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal carpools transport minister Gopal Rai and health minister Satyendra Jain to Delhi Secretariat as the trial odd-even scheme comes into effect in New Delhi on Friday. (PTI)

Terming their actions “goondaism”, Kejriwal told CNN-IBN news channel, “We will not forgive hooliganism. If they do not follow our orders, they will be thrown out of Delhi. They can give their names and I will ensure they are moved out of Delhi.”

Reiterating his charge that Thursday’s strike by DANICS and IAS officers was on the orders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, “It was masterminded by (principal secretary to the PM) Nripendra Mishra on the directions of the Prime Minister. All directions are coming from the PMO. Who ordered the (CBI) raid at my office? It was Narendra Modi.”

On the request of the DANICS officers’ association, the Union home ministry had Thursday declared the AAP government’s order to suspend two senior bureaucrats null and void.

“The PMO declares all my orders null and void. He targets me unfairly,” Kejriwal told the channel. “The Centre wanted to foil the odd-even scheme by making senior officers go on strike. I just want to request Modi-ji to allow us to work.”

The CM went on to say that Modi had “snubbed” him when he had tried to call him on Diwali.

Calling for a debate on whether bureaucrats were needed to run governments, Kejriwal said, “Bureaucrats don’t have expertise in a lot of things. As governance has become very technical, experts are needed for this. The bureaucracy tries to be obstructionist instead of giving solutions. The Delhi government will hire a consultant to advise us on the fields where we need experts from outside.”

His words drew a sharp response from the Centre. “Bureaucracy is an essential tool of good governance. If you do not create a good atmosphere, how would you give good governance? Anything adverse would necessarily affect good governance,” said Union minister Jitendra Singh.

He also dismissed Kejriwal’s attack on the PM as an attempt to get cheap publicity. The CBI, he asserted, has been working independently since the NDA came to power and the government does not interfere in its functioning.