The Delhi government's services and its functioning will be "completely strangulated" by a new order from the Lieutenant Governor that stopped the engagement of hundreds of advisors and fellows without his approval, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Thursday.
The Services Department of Delhi Government wrote to all departments to immediately stop engagements of all the Fellows/ Associate Fellows/ Advisors/ Dy. Advisors/ Specialists/ Senior Research Officers/ Consultants, without the approval of the Lieutenant Governor.
"As per GOI's notification dated 21.05.2015, 'services' is a reserved subject and Lt. Governor is the competent authority in service matters related to GNCTD," the order issued on Wednesday said. The letter further asked the Finance Department not to release salaries henceforth for those engaged without the LG's approval.
The order comes days after Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena terminated the services of around 400 ''specialists'' appointed by the Kejriwal government in different departments, citing alleged irregularities in recruitment. They were engaged in a "non-transparent manner" and without the mandatory approvals of the competent authority, the LG office said in a statement.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) termed the decision as "unconstitutional" and plans to challenge it in court. They claimed that due process was followed in the recruitment.
"No principles of natural justice were followed when the LG took this decision. Not even a single show cause notice was issued, no explanation or clarification was sought at any stage. This unconstitutional decision will be challenged before the court of law," a statement by AAP said.
The Delhi government alleged in its statement that the LG is "hell-bent upon completely destroying" Delhi.
"He chose to punish these 400 talented young professionals only because they chose to associate with the Delhi government," it said.
