Officers are not on strike, claims IAS Association

NEW DELHI: The IAS Association claimed that the officers were not on strike but Delhi Secretariat said the bureaucrats have not appeared in the Assembly committees and not supporting to prepare question-answer of Assembly proceedings. It is pertinent to mention that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues are on a protest at the LG's office.

While the Delhi IAS Association claimed that "All the public welfare and other works are going on smoothly. Meetings are taking place. They can not say that there is a strike as officers are not attending the routine meetings with ministers."

On the other hand, the government has repeatedly underlined instances where the IAS officers had skipped meeting after the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash. It is first time in Independent India, when senior bureaucrats are not contributing answers to questions ,which were asked by MLAs during Assembly Session. It happened during the Budget Session in March this year. Informing the House on March 28, Goel said out of 40 questions, the House has not received answers of 17 questions as the departments concerned have denied answering on 'reserved subject'.

On 6 June, when Delhi Assembly Special session was held, then at least five questions asked by MLAs, officers could not provide answers to questions. At the last, the Speaker has referred the matter of around eight questions not being answered by officers to the Question and Reference Committee of the Delhi Assembly for further action.