A woman IAS officer had been humiliated and misbehaved with by an AAP minister in front of her juniors.
The fraught relations between the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi and bureaucrats have again come to the affair after a senior IAS officer and transport secretary Varsha Joshi alleged that Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot had “misbehaved” with her during a meeting on Friday. Transport department officials have claimed that the minister had “humiliated” and rebuked her in front of 30 juniors in the meeting.
Reportedly, the bureaucrat had raised concerns in the meeting after the Delhi government purportedly cleared a proposal of buying low-floor buses without calling any tender. As per reports, the Transport Minister had planned to hire 1,000 low floor buses from a certain vendor without calling any tender. The move was apparently objected by Joshi which did not go down well with the AAP minister.
Furthermore, reports suggested that Gahlot was also infuriated with Joshi after she submitted a report claiming that no irregularities had been found at the Burari Transport Authority. On July 17, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had visited the Burari Transport Authority office, where auto rickshaws and other commercial vehicles get fitness certificates. The CM had observed that the office had become a “den of corruption”, and that people had complained that only “touts could get their work done quickly.”
READ ALSO: AAP’s Aravind Kejriwal and LG at it again; power battle to continue in SC
However, in her report, Joshi claimed that no such irregularities had been found at the Burari office. During the Friday meeting, Gahlot reportedly blamed Joshi for “shielding touts” and warned her that the Delhi government could get her transferred for corruption “as and when it decided to. “
According to a report in a leading news daily, a few transport department officials claimed that the minister also asked Joshi to “stay within her limits”. “The minister then left the room and instructed that a memo be issued against the commissioner and that she should not be allowed to enter his room,” an offical alleged, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the forum of transport department association issued a statement accusing the minister of misbehaving with the bureaucrat and demanded an apology.
In the statement, the association said, “The officers and staff of the transport department are pained at the misbehavior of Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot with secretary-cum-commissioner (transport) Varsha Joshi. The minister not only misbehaved with an upright and honest woman officer but also insulted her in the presence of 30 other officials in the meeting.”
On the other hand, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta condemned the incident and accused Gahlot of “humiliating and mentally harassing” Joshi. While speaking to the Times of India, Gahlot denied the allegations, stating that he had been speaking to the transport department bureaucrat and not a male or a woman officer.
Post Your Comments