New Delhi: It was business as usual at the Delhi Secretariat as bureaucrats, including chief secretary Anshu Prakash, performed their duties normally, but did not have meetings with AAP ministers.
The officers’ bodies had on Tuesday announced that they would boycott meetings with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Cabinet colleagues until he apologised for the alleged assault on the chief secretary by AAP MLAs at the chief minister’s residence, and maintain written communication with them.
Only two Delhi ministers, including deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and environment minister Imran Hussain came to the Delhi Secretariat, which houses offices of all ministers and top bureaucrats, and worked in their respective offices.
According to officials, Mr Kejriwal, health minister Satyendar Jain and labour minister Gopal Rai are out of Delhi, while two ministers, Rajendra Pal Gautam and Kailash Gahlot, did not join office on Wednesday.
An official said Mr Gautam was not well and that was why he could not come to office today.
Mr Prakash, home secretary Manoj Parida, power secretary Varsa Joshi were among the senior officers who worked in their respective offices, but they not did have scheduled meetings with ministers.
The chief secretary stayed at the secretarial till around 3 pm, and then he had left for a scheduled meeting on the ease-of-doing business at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
A senior officer said there was routine work such moving of files in the offices of principal secretaries and secretaries on Wednesday, but no meetings took place with the ministers.
On Tuesday, most officials boycotted their work in protest against the alleged assault.
Meanwhile, the Delhi high court on Wednesday refused to entertain a plea seeking immediate judicial intervention into the alleged assault on the Delhi chief secretary. The plea was mentioned for urgent hearing before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar which said the police was already looking into the incident.
