NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday termed the National Capital Civil Services Authority (NCCSA) as a “farce”, asserting that the BJP-led Centre is trying to “run the Delhi government by stealth”.
Addressing a press conference after the first meeting of the NCCSA, Kejriwal said the Centre’s ordinance on control of services in the national capital “places an excessive amount of power in the hands of bureaucrats over and above the ministers, the chief minister, and the Cabinet”.
“Every decision taken in the Cabinet will now have to be authorised by the L-G and the chief secretary. It is only for formality that they have created the NCCSA, which consists of the chief minister and two officers who report to the Centre, the LG and the chief secretary,” he alleged. He claimed that the ordinance also provides the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Office with “arbitrary powers” that even the Constitution of India does not grant.
“Whatever decisions the Cabinet, which is referred to as the supreme body, takes, it is eventually the chief secretary who will decide if this important decision is right or wrong,” he said. Kejriwal said the BJP lost four elections in Delhi and the party has no hope of winning polls in the national capital for the next several years.“So they (BJP) have tried to control Delhi through this ordinance... In this way, the party wants to run the Delhi government by stealth after losing the elections,’ he alleged.
He reiterated that they will take this matter to the Supreme Court. “We will obviously take this issue to the Supreme Court and we believe that it will rule in our favour as this is unconstitutional. We also have the support of several opposition parties if this ordinance reaches Parliament. We are confident that it will be rejected in the Rajya Sabha,’ he said.
Explaining the NCCSA, the AAP convener claimed that the Centre wants to give it the appearance that there is a body that mutually takes important decisions for Delhi, but in reality that is not the case.
“This is nothing but a conspiracy to not let the elected government do any work in Delhi,” he said.