Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena with Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar handing appointment letters to government employees on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Wednesday gave appointment letters to about 1,500 freshly recruited Delhi government employees across departments, including 324 school principals and 500 firefighters, at a programme organised by the Services Department.
Hours later, a war of words ensued between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and the L-G’s office. While Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said this “exposed how the BJP-led Central government stalled recruitments for nine years”, Raj Niwas sources claimed that the AAP government “never put up demands for filling long-pending vacancies”.
Addressing the event at Vigyan Bhawan, the L-G said he has been emphasising on the need to augment the government manpower through permanent recruitments for posts that had for long been vacant.
“It was the vision of the Prime Minister to end ad-hocism in government departments and provide opportunities to deserving candidates selected in a fair and transparent manner.
“A large number of posts of principals in the Education Department were lying vacant since 2010-2011 and no action in this regard was taken. As of now, 324 principals have been recruited through the UPSC,” said Mr. Saxena.
He added that over 500 post graduate teachers (PGTs) and trained graduated teachers (TGTs) have been appointed.
Apart from the Education Department, vacant posts have also been filled in the Delhi Fire Service, Forensic Science Laboratory, Delhi Transport Corporation and Planning Department on a priority basis, the L-G said.
Responding to the appointments, Mr. Bharadwaj said, “Through its unethical and unwarranted control of the Services Department, the Central government has been stalling all kinds of government recruitment in Delhi.”
“The BJP has been falsely accusing the government of delaying recruitment of principals and teachers, but the L-G himself today explained how it is Centre’s responsibility to recruit them.”
Hitting back, a Raj Niwas official said that the Education and other departments of the government “always preferred ad-hocism aimed at favouritism by appointing thousands of employees on contract basis, in gross violation of procedures, manuals and court orders”.
“[The AAP government] subverted systematic recruitments and deprived the people of Delhi of regular government job opportunities.
“It is now trying to cover its deliberate acts of commission and omission, now that recruitments are being made,” the official alleged.
