Delhi assembly wants chief secretary Anshu Prakash removed

NEW DELHI: The

Delhi assembly

on Friday adopted a resolution demanding “immediate” removal of

chief secretary

Anshu Prakash from his post. The resolution was moved by AAP legislator Alka Lamba after deputy chief minister

Manish Sisodia

told the House that the top bureaucrat had tried to stall the cabinet’s proposal to install 1.4 lakh CCTV cameras in the capital by sending a note to the cabinet that the decision was being taken in “undue haste”.

Mounting a sharp attack on Prakash, Lamba said he was playing in the hands of the BJP government at the Centre. She said vested interests were making efforts to delay and sabotage implementation of the CCTV plan. “This house condemns the chief secretary, who appears to be acting on behalf of the BJP government at Centre, for blocking the CCTV project, and his act appears to be part of the conspiracy by the Opposition to further delay the CCTV project,” said Lamba, reading out the resolution. “The house demands that Anshu Prakash should immediately be removed from the post of chief secretary, Delhi.”

The resolution was adopted by the house by a voice vote. A senior bureaucrat, however, said the chief secretary is appointed by the Government of India and cannot be removed like this.

The resolution against Prakash comes after a long cold war between the state government and the bureaucracy, which escalated after Prakash was allegedly assaulted by AAP MLAs at a midnight meeting on February 19-20, held in the presence of the chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, at the latter’s residence. Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan and Deoli MLA Prakash Jarwal were later arrested in the case and sent to Tihar for two weeks.

The bureaucracy rallied behind Prakash, took out a candle march and decided to organise a silent protest every day at their respective offices. That has been continuing till now.

After around three months of confrontation, Kejriwal alleged that the bureaucrats were boycotting meetings and were not taking calls of the ministers which was affecting work. It prompted the CM to sit on a dharna with three ministers inside LG House in June this year. There had been a thaw in the relations between the government and the bureaucracy a bit after this but it once again started showing signs of strain following a face-off between transport minister Kailash Gahlot and transport commissioner Varsha Joshi.

The resolution also demanded a thorough examination of the reasons behind the delay in implementing the project. “The delay that occurred... despite the fact that the CCTV decision by the government was taken in October 2015 needs detailed examination and should be referred to a committee,” it said.