With its topmost leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal still in Tihar, the AAP has received yet another blow as the Women and Child Development (WCD) Department of the Delhi Government has terminated the services of 52 "illegally" appointed contractual employees of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).
The termination has been carried out on the basis of a report submitted by a committee way back in June, 2017. Earlier, an order issued on April 29 said that the WCD Department had terminated the services of 223 contractual staff, but the department on Thursday issued a statement saying it had directed for the termination of 52 such employees.
According to an official, 223 posts were "illegally" created but only 52 staffers were hired and the remaining posts were vacant. It is alleged that the former chairperson of the DCW, Swati Maliwal, who is currently Rajya Sabha member, had appointed the staffers without permission, going against the rules.
The crackdown is set to become another flashpoint between the Lieutenant Governor's office and the ruling AAP over the administration of the national capital. The development also comes at a time when AAP leader and Kejriwal is in jail after being arrested in connection with alleged irregularities in the capital's now-scrapped liquor policy.
Calling the notice to DCW a "Tughlaqi order", Maliwal on X wrote, "LG has issued a Tughlaqi order to remove all the contract staff of DCW. Today, the Women's Commission has a total staff of 90 out of which only 8 people have been provided by the government, the rest are on 3-month contracts."
"If all the contract staff is removed, the Women's Commission will be locked. Why are these people doing this? This institution has been built with blood and sweat. Instead of giving it staff and protection, you are destroying it from its roots?" Maliwal added.
The committee was constituted by the then Lt Governor Anil Baijal to look into the complaints of "irregular and illegally created posts and contractual appointments" in February, 2017 at DCW, said the statement from the WCD Department.
"The committee, headed by the then Chief Secretary and comprising Principal Secretary (Finance), Secretary (WCD) and Secretary (Law) as members, after inquiry, had found the appointments and the processes that were followed, to be illegal and had held the appointments to be invalid ab initio", it said.
The committee had recommended that the appointment of existing contractual staff engaged without having sanctioned posts, are void ab initio and they cannot be allowed to continue, it said.
"However, the DCW and its then chairperson, Swati Maliwal, who in the first instance had appointed these individuals, illegally kept the recommendations of the Committee in abeyance and the same could be moved by the WCD Department only upon her demitting office recently," the statement added. The officials said that currently, 52 contractual staffers were employed.
An order issued by the office of the Lieutenant Governor said that the panel has a sanctioned strength of 40 employees and that 223 new posts were created without the approval of the Lieutenant Governor.
"DCW has violated the statutory provisions of DCW Act, 1994 and various standing instructions of the Department of Finance & Planning Department, GNCTD by creating 223 posts and engaging staff without following due procedure i.e. no study was conducted to assess the actual requirement of additional staff and eligibility criteria for each post, no administrative approval and expenditure sanctioned was obtained from the GNCTD for engaging such manpower and applications for such posts were not formally invited, role and responsibility for any of these posts were not assigned and emoluments of some of the incumbents which were decided at the time of initial appointment, were enhanced very sharply and arbitrarily," the order read.
Taking cognizance of all these alleged irregularities and illegalities made by the DCW, the order said, "the Hon'ble Lieutenant Governor has approved the proposal of the department that the appointments of contractual staff engaged in DCW without having sanctioned posts and without following due procedures is void ab initio and the same cannot be allowed to continue in DCW."
"Therefore, the approval of the Government is hereby conveyed to Delhi Commission for Women to discontinue the services of all contractual staff with immediate effect who have been appointed by DCW at any point of time, by going beyond its delegated power and without following various procedures laid down and in violation of DCW Act/ rules/regulations/guidelines issued by Govt of NCT of Delhi from time to time," the order added.
Before entering the Rajya Sabha, Maliwal, who is currently AAP's Rajya Sabha MP, had headed the Delhi Commission for Women for nine years. As per the order, she was repeatedly advised to take the finance department's approval for making these appointments.
This is not the first time former DCW chairperson Maliwal had trouble with the law. Earlier, it was alleged that she had abused her power to appoint acquaintances between 2015 and 2016. However, in a major relief, the Delhi High Court last year stayed the proceedings against her till the next date of hearing. Maliwal was charged under the Prevention of Corruption (POC) Act, which she later denied.
The case was filed on the complaint of BJP leader Barkha Shukla Singh, a former DCW chief who was also attached to the Anti-corruption Branch in 2016. After an initial enquiry, an FIR was registered in the matter.
