Kejriwal asks Shakuntala Gamlin not to take charge as acting Chief Secretary

A senior Delhi government official said that in his letter to Gamlin, Kejriwal has said that her appointment is against the set rule

The confrontation between Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and the AAP government today intensified with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asking senior bureaucrat Shakuntala Gamlin to not take charge as acting Chief Secretary of the city, a day after she was appointed to the post by Jung.

A senior Delhi government official said that in his letter to Gamlin, Kejriwal has said that her appointment is against the rules, and in view of this, she should not take charge as acting Chief Secretary of Delhi.

Gamlin was appointed after she wrote a scathing letter to Jung claiming that she was pressurised by Rajendra Kumar, a senior bureaucrat who is secretary to Kejriwal, to opt out of the running for the post due to her alleged proximity to BSES discoms.

Slamming the LG's move, the AAP government had yesterday said the LG cannot bypass the elected government and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and that he acted against "the Constitution, GNCT of Delhi Act and the Transaction of Business Rules."

Jung had promptly rebutted the AAP government's allegations saying under Article 239 AA of the Constitution of India, the the Lt Governor is the representative of State Authority in Delhi.

Chief Secretary K K Sharma has left for the US on a personal visit due to which the government had to appoint an acting Chief Secretary. Gamlin is currently serving as Power Secretary.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ashwini Upadhyay on Saturday criticised the Delhi CM’s move, saying Kejriwal should read the Constitution before opposing the appointment.

"Arvind Kejriwal needs to read the Constitution. Either he has hasn't read it or is pretending not to. They (AAP) themselves nominated the woman. I do not know what happened suddenly that they are behaving in this way," said Upadhyay.

"The Delhi Government has made a big blunder. They have defamed a senior woman official verbally and secondly they are trying to give the position of the CS to a person who was accused in the Commonwealth scam," he added