Manish Sisodia urges L-G to end deadlock

New Delhi: Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia wrote to lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal, requesting his intervention as officials were “not attending meetings called by the ministers” and thus, the government work was “getting hampered”. Mr Sisodia said the government officials refused to attend two important meetings in the afternoon on Monday.

Many senior officers of the city administration on Monday abstained from a meeting chaired by transport minister Kailash Gahlot.

The minister had called a meeting of State Road Safety Council for a discussion on proposed road safety policy at the Delhi Secretariat, but most of bureaucrats, including transport commissioner Varsha Joshi and PWD principal secretary Renu Sharma, who are members of the council, skipped it.

Saying that the two meetings have been rescheduled, he requested Mr Baijal to “order all officers to resume work with immediate effect”. Mr Sisodia stressed that it was a “worrisome situation” in the capital with senior IAS officers among others “openly and blatantly refusing to attend meetings...” He wrote that Mr Baijal had himself agreed earlier how the refusal “on part of senior officers to attend such important meetings is in gross violation of IAS conduct rules”.

“However, it is a matter of utmost regret that despite the assurance given, the officers are continuing to boycott meetings called by their respective ministers,” he added.

Meanwhile, the AAP, which has alleged that its minister Imran Hussain and Delhi Dialogue Commission’s vice-chairman Ashish Khetan were assaulted, sent a delegation to Delhi police commissioner Amulya Patnaik to demand “justice” for its leaders and action in the cases.

The delegation, which included AAP leader Ashutosh and MP Sanjay Singh, told reporters that they gave Mr Patnaik “video evidence” of the “assaults” that took place on February 20 at the Delhi Secretariat.

Ashutosh claimed that police were prompt in taking action against AAP MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan — for allegedly assaulting chief secretary Anshu Prakash - though there was no evidence against them.