Assembly Speaker writes to CS, flags officers cold shouldering communication from MLAs

New Delhi: Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta has written to Chief Secretary Dharmendra seeking his intervention in bringing in line some officers who allegedly have not been responding to communications from MLAs. In his letter, Gupta sought to draw the top city bureaucrat’s attention to the procedure and protocol to be adhered to by the government officers while dealing with the members of the Assembly.

“A few instances have been brought to my notice where the communications of the Members in the form of letters, phone calls or messages have not even been acknowledged by the concerned officer,” Gupta said in the letter, terming it a “serious” matter. Gupta said he expected that all administrative secretaries, head of departments, Delhi Police, DDA, and other agencies would be asked to follow a strict compliance to the norms.

The Speaker also sought to be updated about action taken in the matter. The Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure lays down instructions for prompt disposal of references from Members of Parliament and state legislatures. It instructs that communications received from a

Member of Parliament/state legislature should be attended to promptly. Any Information sought by a Member of Parliament and State Legislature should be supplied, unless it is of such a nature that it would have been denied to him, it instructs further. The Delhi government bureaucracy faced charges from previous AAP dispensation too, of being non-responsive to the ministers and MLAs and obstructing their work.