Delhi L-G completes one year, asks bureaucrats not to bow to pressure

Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, who completed a year in office on Friday, listed the works done by the administration under him and claimed the national capital has not seen so much done in the last decade.

Addressing the IAS officers of the AGMUT cadre attending a workshop on capacity building of civil servants for effective service delivery, the L-G exhorted them to work hard and honestly without bowing to pressure.

"Work hard and honestly without bowing to pressure and no one can touch you. No harm will come your way," he said and asserted that this was an assurance from him.

A row has erupted between the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi and the BJP-ruled Centre after the latter promulgated an ordinance effectively bringing the control of the state bureaucracy into the hands of its representative the L-G.

The ordinance came a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services in Delhi excluding police, public order and land to the elected government.

Citing various works supervised by him in Delhi, Saxena said, "We have delivered so much in the last one year with your cooperation that could not have been done perhaps even in 10 years."

In the last one year, permanent jobs were given to 17,000 people in Delhi. There has been a perceptible change in the heavily polluted Yamuna and hopefully, the river will be restored to its previous glory, he said.

The L-G said that cleaning of the river was monitored by the Supreme Court for 28 years and then by the National Green Tribunal for eight years but the result was "zero".

After the January 8 order by NGT that led to the setting up of a high-level committee headed by the L-G for Yamuna cleaning, there has been a marked difference in the work done by the same officers who were engaged in the project earlier also, Saxena said.

Saxena cited the example of a Delhi Jal Board assistant engineer who despite the death of his brother returned to duty after a day's leave to complete the task at hand.

"In the face of such passion and dedication, no task is difficult," he said.

The LG said that the work to remove the three garbage dump yards in the city which were like "blots" on the Delhi landscape, has picked up pace in the last one year.

"The work by the officers of MCD in the last one year is incredible. The height of these dumps has been reduced up to 30 metres."

It is hoped that the garbage mounds at the three landfills will be cleared in the next one year and efforts are being made to enhance disposal of dumped garbage from 20,000 tonnes daily currently to 30,000 tonnes per day, he said.

Saxena told the IAS officers of the Delhi government that bureaucracy is a value system with compassion, hard work and a positive attitude ingrained in it.

He suggested that the officers interact with people to increase the delivery of services. the L-G also advised them not to let the power of being a civil servant affect their work.

"The system collapses when bureaucrats start maintaining distance from the public. There is a need to change the mindset where bureaucrats instead of serving people become bosses," Saxena said.

He said unless the bureaucrats go to the field and understand the ground realities, the decisions made by them sitting in their chambers are prone to be wrong.

The LG lauded chief secretary Naresh Kumar present in the workshop, terming him as a "Karmyogi" who was ready to work round the clock.