NEW DELHI: Many senior officers of the city administration today abstained from a meeting chaired by Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot.
The minister had called a meeting of State Road Safety Council for a discussion on proposed road safety policy at the Delhi Secretariat today, but most of bureaucrats, including Transport Commissioner Varsha Joshi and PWD Principal Secretary Renu Sharma, who are members of the Council, skipped it.
IAS and DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service) have been boycotting meetings with AAP ministers including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal since the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by ruling AAP MLA at the CM's residence last week.
The officers are only maintaining written communication and even not attending calls made by any of the Delhi ministers in solidarity with the chief secretary.
"In view of the decision of joint forum of Delhi government employees, I did not attend the meeting of Delhi Road Safety Council today.
Other bureaucrats abstained from the meet," a senior official, who did not wish to be named said.
According to a notification of the Transport department dated July 7, 2017, DTC's chairman, PWD principal secretary, transport commissioner, secretary (health & family welfare), chairman (NDMC), commissioners of all three MCDs are among the members of the 'State Road Safety Council'.
All these posts are held by IAS officers.
Representatives of other organisations such as Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) and Institute of Road Traffic Education are also members of the Council, the notification stated.
According to the Delhi government, there was "wide-ranging" discussions on the draft road safety policy for the national capital in today's meeting.
The discussion was part of the second meeting of the reconstituted Delhi Road Safety Council, and was attended by officials, academicians and experts from organisations, the Delhi government said in a statement.
It stated that Delhi figures as among the most unsafe cities in India for road users.
In 2016, 7,375 fatal road crashes occurred in Delhi in which 7,154 people were injured and 1,591 people lost their lives.