The Delhi assembly on Tuesday constituted a panel to examine complaints that the services department, which manages the bureaucrats and reports to the Lieutenant Governor (LG), has not been responding to queries raised by the legislators in the House.
Exercising her authority as chair of the House, deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla announced the constitution of the committee which will submit a report on the matter in the next 48 hours.
“The Union government snatched the services department through a notification which is grossly unconstitutional. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court, but this doesn’t mean that the assembly cannot even pose a question on how many employees are in each department of the Delhi government and how many are vacant,” she said in the House.
Also read: BJP planning to turn Delhi into a UT, will junk elections: Kejriwal in House
In May, a three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana, referred the dispute between the Centre and Delhi government over control of administrative services in the Capital to a five-judge Constitution bench.
{{/usCountry}}In May, a three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana, referred the dispute between the Centre and Delhi government over control of administrative services in the Capital to a five-judge Constitution bench.
{{/usCountry}}Whenever a legislator asks such questions, Birla said, the services department responds, “I am directed to inform that the matter of services is a reserved subject under the notification issued by the MHA on 21/05/2015, in view of the present situation, this department cannot answer the Vidhan Sabha’s question.”
She said the department has not even responded to the questions raised by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators.
Also read: Covid: Delhi sees minor rise in tally with 615 fresh cases, positivity rate at 3.89%
She said, “I am constituting a committee comprising Rajesh Gupta (the AAP MLA from Wazirpur), Atishi (Kalkaji MLA) and Somnath Bharti (Malviya Nagar MLA) and two other MLAs who will report to me on this matter in 48 hours. I am requesting the members of the committee to look into the reasons behind this negligence by the service department, which is quite unfortunate. Their reply is an insult to this assembly.”
The LG’s office did not respond to requests for comment.