Manish Sisodia files affidavit in SC amid AAP-LG feud; 'Governance has been compromised'

Amid AAP's feud with Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia filed an additional affidavit before the Supreme Court on Wednesday. He complained that the governance in the national capital has been compromised after VK Saxena was appointed as the LG. According to him, any cooperation between civil servants and the elected government is sought to be penalized. He further added that claimed that bureaucrats do not attend meetings, do not take calls from Ministers and disobey their orders. 

Manish Sisodia noted, "The power to assign posts, effect transfers within the Government of NCT of Delhi and discipline the civil servants is exercised by the Central Government/Lieutenant Governor. Given this regime introduced by the impugned notification, it is not surprising that civil servants in the Government of NCT of Delhi have become indifferent to the elected government. The net result is that the basic day-to-day functioning of the Government of NCT of Delhi stands completely jeopardized. The problem has become even more acute with the appointment of the incumbent Lieutenant Governor earlier this year."

"The ability of the elected government to advocate its interests through counsels of its choice is thus being severely compromised, in a bid to deny it the opportunity to obtain effective legal representation. This is resulting in several senior counsels not taking up briefs for the elected government on account of skepticism that their fees shall be processed in a similar fashion. Once again, the interests of the government and of the people stand to suffer due to the unreasonable and unwarranted stand being adopted by civil servants without any legal basis," the affidavit added. 

Here are Manish Sisodia's allegations:

• Officials have stopped attending meetings being called by the Ministers
• Officials have stopped taking calls of the Ministers
• Officials are either delaying or not at all supplying the files concerning the departments to the Ministers
• Officials are disobeying orders/directions of the Ministers including orders/directions that are in writing
• Frequent transfer of heads of various departments have left large gaps in policy implementation of the government
• Large number of vacancies in different posts in the Government of NCT of Delhi as those responsible for making the appointments are not at all accountable to the public for not making the appointments