Our attention has been drawn to certain statements to the media by

the Chief Minister regarding strike by IAS Officers working in GNCTD.

We wish to reiterate and clarify that no officer / official in GNCTD is or

has been on strike subsequent to the unfortunate assault of the Chief
Secretary at 12 midnight on 19.02.2018 at CM’s residence by MLAs in the
presence of Chief Minister and Dy. Chief Minister. While all officers /
officials were very disturbed and agitated by the said assault on the Chief
Secretary and met the Lt. Governor, Home Minister, Cabinet Secretary etc.
and also staged a candlelight march after office hours, at no time was work
disrupted. It is strongly reiterated that Officers / Officials continue to work
with full vigour and dedication, in fact, many times even on holidays.

As a result of the assault on Chief Secretary, the Officers are

concerned about their physical safety and security as also attacks on their
dignity and respect. They are also concerned about continued threat and
intimidation and verbal assaults by many of the Ministers. It is a matter of
record that the concerned officers have been attending all Cabinet
meetings, statutory meetings and meetings of importance affecting the
public. They have also been regularly briefing the Ministers for Assembly
questions. If the officers had been on strike, the Budget could not have
been passed and the Budget Session could not have been held. The
Secretaries are regularly submitting to the Ministers weekly report of the
important matters disposed of by their respective Departments under Rule
17 of the Transaction of Business Rules. Copies of these reports are also
marked to the CM and the LG. Similarly, all Court cases are being attended
to.

There have been instances where officers have attended the meeting
of a Minister, but what the Minister has subsequently recorded on file is
totally contrary to what transpired during the meeting, thereby further
widening the trust deficit in relation to the Political Executive.

While the CM did send a message to the Chief Secretary for a

meeting to resolve these issues, the CM later on did not give time for the
said meeting. No efforts were made by the CM to reach out to the Officers
and to deal with their genuine concerns.

It is unfortunate that the CM and the Ministers are making

unwarranted and baseless allegations that IAS officers are on strike. As
can be seen by anybody in Delhi who visits any Government office,
officers / officials are very much there and working. However, the officers
are not attending routine meetings called by the Ministers and the CM. The
reasons being that the CM and Ministers have failed till date to give any
assurance regarding safety, security, dignity and respect to the officers
including women officers. Due to genuine apprehension in the mind of
officers / officials, we are constrained to have interaction with the Ministers
only by means of written communications. Also, officers / officials have
been observing a five-minute silence during lunch time, in their respective
offices, in support of their demand for dignity and personal safety of all
officers / officials.

In-so-far as specific instances referred to by the CM, the factual

position is as under:-

1. Transport Department

On receipt of a mail from Addl. Standing Counsel with regard to

directions of Hon’ble High Court on 30.05.2018, Transport
Department prepared a comprehensive note covering all information
which was to be incorporated in the affidavit for approval of Hon’ble
Minister (Transport) and it was specifically mentioned that a decision
in this regard could be conveyed to the Hon’ble High Court only after
the approval of Council of Ministers, therefore, Department may seek
time from the Hon’ble Court. The physical file bearing CD No.
075465444 was sent to the Minister Transport on 31.05.18 at 11:00
AM and also through Whatsapp Message. However, office of Minister
(Transport) refused to accept the file saying that Hon’ble Minister is
out of station. Department made all efforts to contact Hon’ble
Minister through his OSD Sh. Sanjay Dewan, without success. Since
the Hon’ble Minister (Transport) did not pass any order on the file, the
Commissioner Transport was compelled to appear herself personally
before the Hon’ble Court on 01.06.2018 to avoid any adverse orders.

2. DSIIDC and F&S Department

As regard, matter pertaining attending meetings by MD (DSIIDC),

who is also Commissioner (F&S), the file regarding door step delivery
proposal has not been received in the Department till date (reminder
for the same has already been issued to the Minister Civil Supplies.
The file is with the Minister for nearly 3 months. The Commissioner,
F&S visited the office of Minister for a meeting called by the Minister
on 05.06.2018 at 12:45 PM and remained there till 2:25 PM.
However, Minister did not come to the office. Since the
Commissioner, F&S had other commitments in the other Department,
where he holds charge, he had to leave Minister’s office after 2:25
PM with instructions to other officers to assist the Hon’ble Minister in
formulating replies to Vidhan Sabha questions.

Food & Supplies Department is the Nodal Department to implement

the National Food Security Act and Rules made thereunder. After the
 successful implementation of e-PoS, Department detected 2.93 Lakh
suspicious ration cards, where beneficiaries did not turn up to take
ration consecutively for 03 months. Notices as stipulated under NFS
Act and Rules were issued to them. It is a settled law that once a
statutory obligation is cast upon the Authority, the same is bound to
act as per law and such action cannot be restrained through an
administrative order. Hence, aspersions cast that Department issued
notices to people without seeking approval of Hon’ble Minister is
contrary to the rule position.

Regarding the strike by ration dealers, it needs to be clarified that

ration dealers were demanding continuation of e-PoS System which
was suspended by political executive / elected government.
However, Commissioner (F&S) conducted a meeting with FPS
Associations on 16.05.18 and further organized a meeting at the level
of Hon’ble Minister on 17.05.18. Officers of the Department attended
the meeting on 17.05.18 and successfully resolved the crisis.

3. Matters pertaining to DUSIB

With regard to matter pertaining to DUSIB, it has been clarified that

no meeting has been called by Hon’ble Minister (UD) regarding public
toilets and / or award of work for maintenance of public toilets in slum
areas. A meeting was called on 03.05.18 regarding construction of
EWS Houses and preparation of RFPs. Since MD (DTTDC), who is
CEO (DUSIB) had to attend another meeting of the Committee of
Government undertaking at Delhi Vidhan Sabha, other senior officers
from DUSIB including Member (Engineering), Chief Engineer,
Director (Town Planning) and Director (HFA) attended the meeting
with the Minister.

Further, it is submitted that regarding the preparation of rehabilitation

plan for JJ cluster, for 04 clusters, the proposal has been made and
submitted to the UD Minister for his approval and remains pending
with him and CM since 12th April, 2018.