Give list of files asked for by LG: Chief secretary to Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia

NEW DELHI: Days after deputy CM Manish Sisodia claimed that the LG’s office had sought files directly from department heads bypassing the ministers, chief secretary Naresh Kumar on Tuesday asked the former’s office to provide details of “orders and files” of all such policy matters.
The CS office also copied the same letter to all principal secretaries, secretaries, chief executive officers, managing directors, directors and commissioners to provide details of such files referred to by the deputy CM in his letter to the LG, latest by January 2, 2023.
“If there is no such case, then provide the ‘nil’ report,” the note signed by the staff officer of the chief secretary read.
In a six-page letter written to Saxena on Friday, Sisodia had claimed that the LG Secretariat had “in the recent past resorted to the practice of calling for files from various departments through their respective secretaries, the chief secretary and transacting business thereon, such as approving the issuance of notifications, etc, completely bypassing the minister concerned as also the cabinet”.
The letter was written only a day after Saxena had given his approval to notify the Right to Way policy after getting the file put up directly by the chief secretary alleging that it was stuck since 2020 due to “pointless and persistent politicking” on part of the AAP government and its ministers.
The deputy CM had also issued an order to the chief secretary, secretaries and heads of departments, blaming them for sending “certain files pertaining to important policy decisions… directly to the LG secretariat without routing the same/putting it up to me as the minister in charge of the department”.
Sisodia, in his order to heads of all Delhi government departments, had further said that he had come to know of instances that “the LG has given direct orders/directions and approvals to officers bypassing the council of ministers”. He referred to the constitutional provisions enshrined in Article 239AA of the Government of NCT of Delhi Act of 1991 and the judgment of a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court in 2018 on the division of powers between the LG and the elected dispensation.
The deputy CM, in his order, also directed the officials to place before him all such files on matters pertaining to the Business of Government of NCT of Delhi directly to the LG, bypassing his office. “Any directions received directly from the LG should also be placed before the minister in-charge for necessary directions/course of action before implementing the same,” the order added.