New rule to allow Delhi officers to ‘take charge’ from Day 1

NEW DELHI: In a step towards administrative reforms, the Delhi government has adopted a new practice for delegation of powers to officers across departments. Unlike district magistrates and sub-divisional magistrates who enjoy all powers by virtue of their posts, many officers, such as a VAT officer in the trade and taxes department, cannot carry out their statutory functions unless those powers are conferred on them via separate notifications. This often results in key work being delayed.
L-G Anil Baijal has asked heads of government departments and the corporations to confer powers by “virtue of office, rather than on individual officers by name”. The move is intended to ensure that public work is not affected and files, which are often pending with authorities for delegation of power to a particular officer, are avoided. Chief secretary Anshu Prakash has written to all HODs to adopt the system.

“It’s an administrative reform that aims to fast-track work at the ground level. With power conferred on posts, there will not be any need to issue separate notifications,” a senior officer said. Departments of Delhi government are principal executing agencies for various statutes. The officers carry out core and ancillary functions under these statutes for which, currently, separate notifications are issued to confer power on the name of the individual officer occupying the posts.

Sources in the government said work was delayed for months in different departments because a file was required to be generated for issuance of notification, especially at the second rung of administration. The file was then sent to authorities concerned in specific departments for approval. It took a long time, in some cases more than 2-3 months, for the notification to be issued. As a result, an officer’s powers were limited for a considerable time, affecting the work.

An officer said that in the light of the problems being faced, it was decided that such issues be settled by adopting a new and uniform practice. LG’s approval was sought for the proposal, which was duly granted. “Now, officers, such as VATO, will have power from the day they join office. They will be able to work to the best of their abilities,” an officer said.

Under the new practice, the system of generating files for separate delegation of powers to particular officers will be abandoned.