NEW DELHI: In another strike against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led government in the city, Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) VK Saxena directed CM Arvind Kejriwal to sack Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission (DDDC) Vice Chairman (VC) Jasmine Shah for allegedly misusing his office for political purposes.
Additionally, Saxena also asked Kejriwal to restrict Jasmine from “discharging duties” as the government think tank's vice-chairman of DDC and using any “privilege and facilities” associated with its office till a “decision is taken by the CM” in this regard.
"An administrative order to this effect was issued by the planning department of Delhi Government on Thursday, in compliance of which the SDM, Civil Lines sealed the office premises of DDC late Thursday night," officials at L-G Secretariat informed.
According to the officials, the move has come after Jasmine failed to submit his reply for the show cause notice he received from the L-G office in October which accused him of "blatantly misusing” government resources and public office by acting as the “official spokesperson” of the AAP while serving at a non-political post.
BJP MP Parvesh Verma had complained that Shah was "working as a spokesperson of the AAP".
Jasmine was reportedly given two opportunities to reply to the show cause notice issued on October 17 by the Director of the planning department but Shah failed to submit his reply. Instead, he informed that the reply was submitted to the Minister of the Planning department.
"The L-G office wrote a letter to the Chief Minister's office on November 4, seeking to know the reply of Jasmine Shah but the CM's office till now has not replied to the letter. Thereafter, the LG asked to remove him and in the interim, to prevent any further misuse of the office of DDC, Shah's office was sealed late Thursday," a senior official from the L-G's secretariat explained.
However, Jasmine had responded to the show-cause notice through a tweet then stating that Delhi L-G has no jurisdiction over the office of the DDDC VC and the power to remove him from the post remains with the CM only.