In a scathing attack on the DANICS (Delhi and Andaman & Nicobar Islands Civil Service) officers’ associations, deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the Delhi government will continue to work for public welfare and if it (work) is halted, then the government will not tolerate it.
The AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories) cadre IAS officers’ and the DANICS association had on Tuesday passed a joint resolution to stand united against the political executive.
Deputy CM said: “People have elected us to work not to sit on chairs, thus the bureaucrats here will also have to work. If they don’t want to do so, they should take transfers.”
“If public welfare works would be halted then we will not tolerate. You (officers) will have to do these works,” Sisodia said.
“I asked the bureaucrats who came to submit the resolution to me that why does your resolution seems like a political one. I told them if we would have had control over ACB, more than 50 per cent of your officers would have been behind the bars,” he said.
“Is it an IAS association or a political body? If the government takes action against any officer, they go on strike. They went on strike on the first day of Odd-Even scheme,” Sisodia said here.
Representatives of the two associations met Sisodia on Wednesday morning and gave him a copy of the resolution, in which they expressed anguish at the “insults and use of offensive language against some senior officers by the political executive of the Delhi government in the recent past”.
On Sunday, after a patient died at Lok Nayak Hospital due to non-availability of ventilator apparatus, Delhi health Minister Satyendar Jain asked the Health Secretary to accompany him to the hospital.
Jain said the Health Secretary refused citing unavailability of a car.
“Shameful. Lieutenant- Governor has appointed the most incompetent, useless and insensitive IAS officer as the Health Secretary,” Jain had tweeted.
The IAS and DANICS associations on Tuesday expressed concern about such “uncharitable, derogatory, insulting and humiliating remarks” in print, electronic and social media.
However, Sisodia on Wednesday responded that there were other serious issues that the IAS associations should discuss rather than defending an official’s “irresponsible behaviour”.
“I want to tell all the bureaucrats of Delhi that people have elected us to serve them, not to stay in luxurious offices.
“There is an officer sitting on the file related to promotion of Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik’s father, a DTC employee, for the last three months. Pass a resolution against that officer.
“Files related to adding 10,000 beds in Delhi hospitals, buying new buses and many other decisions to benefit public are pending. They don’t pass resolutions against that.
“Why do they pass only political resolutions?” the deputy Chief Minister asked.