New Delhi: Amid his ongoing tussle with Lt Governor Najeeb Jung over posting and transfer of bureaucrats, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday accused the Centre of trying to run the administration in the national capital.
In a letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kejriwal charged that the Central government is trying to rule Delhi through the Lt Governor.
The Chief Minister further urged the PM to “allow the Delhi government to work independently under the constitutional scheme”.
Kejriwal's letter to PM Modi came a day after he took his fight over bureaucratic control to President's doors and accused Jung of interfering in the working of his elected government.
Jung had also met the President separately yesterday and narrated his side of the story.
Emerging after meeting Mukherjee along with Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said: "We had a good meeting with the President. We told him that the LG is trying to run Delhi the way he did during President's Rule."
"We told him that the LG is issuing direction to officers bypassing the Chief Minister and threatening them. If this goes on, where will democracy be?"
Sisodia and Kejriwal informed the President that despite their objections, Jung insisted on appointing Shakuntala Gamlin as acting chief secretary. "We later approved (her name) ... but now (Jung) is interfering in the appointment of secretaries too."
Sisodia said Mukherjee listened to them "carefully" and sought further details. "He (President) was worried and concerned (over the matter). He assured us that he will look into it."
Details of Jung's meeting with the President were not available.
Meanwhile, in shot in the arm for the AAP, senior lawyers Indira Jaising and Rajeev Dhavan criticised Jung, with one of them saying he had exceeded his authority.
The two lawyers submitted their legal opinion to the Kejriwal government on its request following the tussle over the posting of Delhi bureaucrats.
In his written advice, Dhavan said: "It is abundantly clear that the Lt Governor has exceeded his authority and has turned the entire relationship between himself and the Council of Ministers on its head to jeopardise democracy and the Constitution."
In her letter, Jaising said the political executive was "constitutionally empowered" to choose its own officers in accordance with the cadre.
"Who will be the chief secretary or any other secretary of the government is a matter in which the Governor has to yield to the will of the political executive which has been democratically elected," she said.
She also said the discretionary power to appoint a chief secretary can be found neither in the Constitution nor in any statute.
In another act of defiance, the AAP government yesterday named Arvind Ray, an IAS officer removed by the Lt Governor from the post of secretary (home), as the secretary (general administrative department).
The post of secretary (GAD) was earlier held by Anindo Majumdar, who was on Monday locked out of his office at the Delhi Secretariat on Kejriwal's orders for following Jung's fiat to appoint Gamlin as acting chief secretary on May 15.
It was Gamlin's elevation which dramatically triggered the worst confrontation between Jung and the AAP government that stormed to power in February.
There have been differences between the Delhi government and Jung over a range of issues, with the appointment of Gamlin as the latest flashpoint.
The Kejriwal government has accused Gamlin of lobbying for power companies.
On Monday, Jung rejected the appointment of Rajendra Kumar as the principal secretary (services). Later, the Delhi government said it won't pay heed to what he (Jung) had said as it was "unconstitutional".
Kejriwal had on Sunday also accused the Modi government of trying to trip up his government.
(With IANS inputs)
