File picture of Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung (left) and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. (Associated Press)
An association of Indian Administrative Services officers today said it condemned the way the officers have been humiliated and maligned in public - fallout of the ongoing turf war between the Lieutenant Governor and the Delhi government.
At the end of the two-hour meeting attended by Rajendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to the chief minister, the officers of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, Union Territories) passed a resolution that said, "We view with great anguish the manner in which officers have been treated and maligned in public".
Calling it an "unprecedented situation", Umesh Sehgal, former Chief Secretary of Delhi, said a public statement from the Chief Minister, "showing a desire to rectify will go a long way to assuage the feelings of officers".
The association has also demanded that the transfer and posting of officers should not be politicised.
At least 20 officers had sought relocation from Delhi to avoid being trapped in the war between Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Najeeb Jung, say sources in the home ministry.
The two men are fighting over who has the final say in the appointment of officers. As Delhi is a Union Territory, it is the Lieutenant Governor, as the representative of the Union government, who assigns bureaucrats to offices, contends Mr Jung. The Union government reportedly agrees with the position but the Delhi Government contends that the Chief Minister cannot be ignored while assigning important posts.
The battle that started with Mr Jung appointing senior bureaucrat Shakuntala Gamlin the acting chief secretary - making her the most senior bureaucrat in the government -- has already claimed one victim. Senior government official Anindo Majumdar, who released the appointment letter for Ms Gamlin in her new position, had been locked out of his office.
Mr Kejriwal's attempt to replace Mr Majumdar with another bureaucrat was declared void by Mr Jung.
The matter has already reached the doors of President Pranab Mukherjee, whom both sides have met separately. Today Union home minister Rajnath Singh, who briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the matter, said the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Minister must "jointly find" a solution to the problem.