SC hearing on termination of 400 workers from Delhi govt today, LG ‘fired’ them citing this

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is set to hear the petition of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government today, in which it has sought stay on Delhi Lieutenant-Governor (LG) order ‘firing’ its more than 400 consultants.

Amid the intense war of words between AAP govt & Delhi LG, the latter has again questioned its intentions and accused it of openly flouting of rules & disregarding the law for ‘recruiting’ its own party workers on official positions.

On Sunday night, the Delhi LG office raised series of questions on the alleged violations and claimed that the AAP dispensation abused the law and appointed its party workers in government roles, while bypassing all regulations in place.

By doing this, a group of over 430 consultants was entitled to handsome perks but not accountable to any office, the LG office said.

The LG’s office alleged that the AAP govt illegally recruited party workers to well-paid positions and in doing so, also bypassed the reservation policy.

The LG’s office also claimed that it is in possession of damning documents which reveal that the selection panel was constituted of people belonging either to party or those with close links and this was enough ground for ‘favouritism’ in picking party workers for govt jobs.

LG’s office said that AAP worker Ratnesh Gupta was nominated by Delhi Assembly’s Speaker as one of the three member panel, that picked consultants in 2020.

“Gupta was a party candidate from Patparganj seat in 2015 Assembly Elections. He however withdrew his nomination after Manish Sisodia was fielded from here,” the LG office said.

AAP rejects claims

Kejriwal government has already dismissed reports of ‘AAP workers hired as consultants’ in Delhi Assembly and challenged the Delhi LG’s decision to fire them in Supreme Court.

The AAP-LG fight over consultants broke out after the latter terminated their services citing breach of regulations. These 400 are ‘people of expertise’ in concerned departments and placed as research, consultants & experts working for the government.