Work hard and don’t bow to pressure, L-G tells officials in Delhi

Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena on Friday asked IAS officers posted in the national capital to work honestly and “not bow to any kind of pressure”.

Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena on Friday asked IAS officers posted in the national capital to work honestly and “not bow to any kind of pressure”. His remarks come in the backdrop of an ongoing tussle between the Centre and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government over control of the city bureaucrats.

On May 12, a day after the Supreme Court gave the elected regime the power to make laws and wield control over the Delhi government officials, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the officials who had put the brakes on his government’s projects would have to “pay for their actions”. Even after the Centre promulgated an ordinance on May 19, effectively reversing the apex court order, the AAP government dug in its heels over the reinstatement of a vigilance official, who was divested of his duties by Services Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj following the SC verdict.

On Friday, while addressing a workshop for the officers of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre, Mr. Saxena said, “Commit yourselves to transparency and work hard without bowing to pressure. If you work with honesty and integrity, nobody can touch you.”

The L-G, who completed one year in office on Friday, also said that more work was done in the city during his tenure than over the past 10 years. He also appreciated the efforts of the Delhi government officials in the rejuvenation of the Yamuna river.

“The cleaning work of the river was monitored by the Supreme Court for 28 years and then by the National Green Tribunal for eight years, but no substantial result was achieved. However, the Yamuna is now slowly but surely moving on a path of rejuvenation,” he said.