In a first, technocrat appointed as PWD spl secy

In a first, the AAP government appointed a technocrat as the secretary of one of the most important departments — PWD and Health , so far reserved for IAS  officers only. 

S Srivastava, Engineer-in-Chief, will now be the Secretary of PWD as the present Secretary Chetan V Sanghi has gone on an indefinite leave. The move is being seen as the implementation of the arguments of Delhi’s CM to appoint specialists in place of bureaucrats. The AAP government is said to have decided to replace some of its officers with engineers and doctors. The AAP government’s move to appoint doctors and engineers seems to be the fallout of a day’s mass casual leave protest by DANICS and IAS officers in the wake of suspension of two special secretaries of the Home department for allegedly refusing to sign two Cabinet notes.

The government has now given charge of Public Works Department’s Secretary to PWD engineer-in-chief Sarvagya Srivastava. The order to this effect has been issued by none other than the PWD minister Satyendar Jain. Prior to this order, Jain had given Srivastava additional charge of PWD special secretary (works).

It is pertinent to mention that under the supervision of Srivastava major flyover projects completed..

“The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Rules, 1993 (TBR) and in supersession of all previous orders in this regard, the following order designation in the PWD are hereby assigned to the officers. Sarvagya Srivastava, engineer-in-chief of public works department (PWD) has been given additional charge of special secretary (works) of the PWD,” read   a statement.

A highly-placed source said that Jain’s move to give additional charge of the special secretary to Srivastava has not gone down well with a section of bureaucrats who feel that the government was unnecessarily targeting them and undermining their authority by allocating bureaucratic work to doctors and engineers. “The decision-making process and policy framing is the sole prerogative of the bureaucrats,” said the source.