NEW DELHI: Condemning the alleged manhandling of the Delhi chief secretary by a few AAP MLAs last night, two IAS bodies today met Lt Governor Anil Baijal to lodge their protest over the matter and said the incident appears to be "pre-planned and pre-meditated".
Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash was allegedly manhandled by a few AAP MLAs at the chief minister's residence in presence of Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia.
However, the chief minister's office dismissed the accusation as "bizarre and baseless".
According to an official, Prakash was called by Kejriwal regarding the issue of advertisements, which were not being released.
But, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) claimed that he had been called for a discussion on rations.
IAS, DANICS associations, along with the Delhi Administration Subordinate Services (DASS), alleged that the meeting was called last night to put pressure on the chief secretary to release publicity material regarding achievements of the AAP government, in violation of the Supreme court guidelines.
The meeting was devoid of any emergency or public interest, they claimed.
"The incident which has happened at the official residence of the chief minister clearly appears to pre-planned, pre-meditated and absolutely without any provocation on the part of the chief secretary in view of the fact that the meeting was called at midnight.
"The meeting had been called to put pressure him to release publicity material regarding achievements of the government," the associations said in a joint statement.
They stated it was a culmination of a series of incidents of officers being subjected to verbal abuse and intimidation by political authorities from time to time and tend to lead to impairment of the effective functioning of bureaucracy in free and impartial manner.
The associations have in the past, repeatedly urged the political parties to allow the officials to discharge their duties professionally, the statement said.
"The appalling and shocking physical assault meted out to the head of the administration of Delhi, in form of blows on the head, amounting to threat to life and physical safety is deplorable," they said, adding that in public interest, the officers and staff would continue to work in their offices.
"We request for effective action to be taken against all people behind the incident," the associations said.