NEW DELHI: Bureaucratic crisis hits Delhi administration as positions of the heads of 12 top departments are lying vacant after some senior IAS officers were transferred and a few retired. Adding to the woes, many senior AGMUT (Assam-Meghalaya, Manipur-Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories) cadre IAS officers posted outside Delhi are reluctant to return. Of the 30 important departments, 12 departments which include--Finance, Home, General Administration, Tourism, Planning, IT, Power, Social Welfare, Revenue, Higher Education, New Delhi Municipal Council and Chief Electoral Office-have remained without their heads for more than a month now. Chief Secretary D M Spolia, who was removed from the post when the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in the capital and was reappointed to the post in August replacing S K Srivastava, is managing the state of affairs by assigning additional charges to the already overburdened officers.
“There is an acute shortage of officers in the administration at senior levels as over two dozen officials are holding dual charges,” said an IAS officer. A 1984-batch officer, Arvind Ray has been holding the additional charge of Home Department after its head Archna Arora, a 1983 batch IAS officer, retired on September 30. Ray is the Principal Secretary (SC/ST/OBC/Minorities), and Chairman and MD of Delhi State Financial Development Corporation.
The top post in the tourism department has been lying vacant for the last three months after Rinku Dhugga, 1994 batch IAS officer, was transferred to Arunachal Pradesh. S S Yadav, who heads Food and Supply Department as well as Directorate of Information and Publicity, holds the additional charge of the Tourism Department. Similarly, Principal Secretary (Services) Shakuntala Gamlin has been given the additional charge of New Delhi Municipal Council Chairperson as current Chairman Jalaj Srivastava is going abroad for special training.