Kutty not examining metro fare hike at BJP's behest: AAP govt

The AAP government today accused Delhi Chief Secretary M M Kutty of refusing to comply with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's order to examine issues related to the recent metro fare hike and alleged that he was doing so at the BJP's behest.
In a statement, the Kejriwal government said that Kutty's "denial" was the first of its kind in the democratic history of the country and warned that it could exercise "options" to deal with "dereliction and sabotage".
"This makes it clear that the Chief Secretary has the backing of the BJP-led Centre and is sabotaging the Delhi government's efforts to send relief to the people of Delhi by getting the fare hike inquired," the government statement alleged.

Earlier in the day, Kutty was summoned by Kejriwal after he allegedly refused to comply with his order to examine issues related to the metro fare hike.
The government statement claimed that the behaviour of Kutty makes it obvious that he was taking "orders from the BJP" and is acting against the elected government of Delhi which is "unconstitutional and undemocratic".
The statement said that the elected government will look into the "options" to deal with such "dereliction and sabotage" of the bureaucrats towards the "pro-people move of the government".

According to the AAP government, it is now of the view that such bureaucrats must have "sabotaged" the elected government's stand on the metro fare hike in the board meeting which decided on the hike.

The metro fare hike was a financial blow to the people of Delhi and has also brought down the ridership of Delhi Metro, it said.
In the past, the AAP government and bureaucrats have been at loggerheads on a range of issues.
In May 2015, Kejriwal had accused the then acting Chief Secretary Shakuntala Gamlin of "favouring" power companies and claimed that she wanted to "trick the government into signing documents which would give Rs 11,000 crore to these firms".
In this month too, the government had issued an order to lock the office of a senior IAS officer after he had issued directives notifying the appointment of the then power secretary Gamlin as the acting chief secretary.

In December 2015, Delhi government bureaucrats had gone on mass leave to protest against the suspension of two Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS) cadre officers.