IANS
New Delhi

The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi yesterday slammed Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung for allegedly “intimidating” senior officers and “shunting out an honest bureaucrat fighting against graft”. Jung said the officer was transferred at the centre’s behest.
The government vowed to stand by its bureaucrats and announced the setting up of a panel of three ministers to “protect bureaucrats from political victimisation”.
Transfer and posting of senior bureaucrats in the national capital has been a sore point between the Aam Aadmi Party government and the lieutenant governor, with both claiming the power.
In a damning charge yesterday, the Arvind Kejriwal government said Jung had threatened several senior officers with dire consequences, including police action, “if they refuse to partake in the exercise of obstructing the functioning of the Delhi government”.
It also questioned why Delhi’s value-added tax commissioner, Vijay Kumar, who cracked down on organised tax evasion syndicates, was “shunted out”.
“Why was Kumar suddenly relieved by the lieutenant general, keeping the chief minister also in the dark? This is not a transfer. This is shunting out of an officer who was fighting against corruption and against deeply entrenched vested interest,” the AAP government said in a statement.
Jung responded by saying that he relieved Kumar at the behest of the central government.
On the charge of browbeating officers, Jung refused to comment in view of several episodes of “poor treatment meted out by the elected government to the top bureaucrats”.
The decision to constitute the group of ministers, which would be chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, was taken at a cabinet meeting yesterday, an official statement said.
The government said the panel - including ministers Satyendra Jain and Gopal Rai - shall be authorised to take all steps required to protect officers, including providing legal support to them, at government cost.
The government also passed two resolutions against Jung on these issues.
The AAP government and Jung don’t see eye to eye on a host of issues, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accusing Jung of sabotaging the city administration at the behest of the central government.
The Kejriwal government said Jung threatened several senior officers with dire consequences, including police action, “if they refuse to partake in the exercise of obstructing the functioning of the Delhi government”.
The government said Jung had warned that if bureaucrats did not toe his line their careers would be “destroyed”.