‘Upright’ Delhi babus excited to work with AAP

Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party has not only evoked a hope for change among the people of Delhi, but also among bureaucrats working in the state government and related departments.

Updated on: Dec 30, 2013, 01:11:16 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party has not only evoked a hope for change among the people of Delhi, but also among bureaucrats working in the state government and related departments.

A number of UT cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and non IAS officers have expressed their keenness to work under team Kejriwal, who formed the government on Saturday after taking an oath at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi.

Kejriwal had earlier called upon honest and dynamic bureaucrats to contact him for future assignments.“I would request them to contact me through SMS or email. We will depute good people at good places,” Kejriwal had said earlier this week.

Aam Aadmi Party sources said a large number of officials have contacted Kejriwal and other AAP legislators to work for better governance in the city. “Many of them have given good ideas and were also willing to provide evidence against corruption in the government,” a senior AAP leader said.

An official, who had worked under the Delhi government for over 20 years, said many upright UT cadre officials felt ignored in the Congress regime as only a select few got vital postings and departments. “There were some officers who had never worked in Delhi for the last 15 years as the city government was not willing to accommodate them suitably,” an official said.

And one of them was 1981 batch IAS officer Vijay Maidan, currently director general of unique identification authority of India (UIDAI), and front-runner for the post of chief secretary. In the last 20 years or so, unlike many other UT cadre IAS officers, Maidan has not served much in the Delhi government.

Another officer who is being considered for the post of chief secretary is 1980 batch IAS officer Sanjay Srivastava, who is currently special secretary in the health ministry.

Team Kejriwal is also looking at middle level and lower rung officers, who can improve government-people interface.

A middle level officer who had launched a crusade against corruption in the transport department and had been sidelined was contacted by AAP leaders and is expected to get the job of reforming the department. Similarly, AAP has shortlisted enthusiastic officers for appointments in other departments. “The postings would be done within a few days of forming the government,” an AAP source said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.