Lockdown: Centre Suspends 2 Delhi Officers for Dereliction of Duty

Officials said that the officers, prima facie, failed to implement the lockdown order issued by the Centre.

The whole country is now under lockdown under the Disaster Management Act.

(Photo: PTI)

The Centre on Sunday, 29 March, suspended two senior Delhi government officers and issued show-cause notices to two others for dereliction of duty during the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.

A Home Ministry spokesperson said the two officers who have been suspended with immediate effect are: Additional Chief Secretary (Transport) Renu Sharma and Principal Secretary (Finance) Rajeev Verma, who also holds the post of divisional commissioner.

The two officers who have been served with show-cause notices are Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Land Buildings) Satya Gopal and SDM (Seelampur) Ajay Arora.

While Sharma, Verma and Gopal are senior IAS officers, Arora is reportedly an officer belonging to Delhi Andaman Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS).

The Union home secretary is the chairperson, National Executive Committee.

"These officers have failed to ensure public health and safety during the lockdown restrictions to combat COVID-19. Due to the serious lapse in performance of their duties, the competent authority has initiated disciplinary proceedings against the officers," the spokesperson said.

In its order, the home ministry said Sharma and Verma “failed to maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty. It is also contemplated to initiate proceedings for imposition of major penalty against them.”

Both Sharma and Verma were asked by the ministry to not leave Delhi without the approval of the competent authority.  The lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday in a bid to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The reason for the action is not immediately known.

Centre Unhappy with Exodus of Migrants

The central government had repeatedly asked the state governments and Union Territory administrations to stop the exodus and provide the migrant workers with food and shelter during the lockdown period.

Hindustan Times reported that meetings with states took place over video conference with Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and Home Secretary AK Bhalla, where the Centre made it clear that it was upset with the tens of thousands of migrant workers landing at the UP-Delhi border to go home.

As a step to stop the migration during the lockdown, Delhi Police filed FIRs over 44 DTC buses headed to the UP border with migrant workers.

One of the FIRs accessed by Hindustan Times indicated that the buses had been deployed on orders of government officials.

When the police asked the bus staffer “why are they carrying migrant passengers, that too without issuing any ticket to them, all of them told that ‘they had orders from superiors.’ The FIR listed registration numbers of 44 buses.

(With inputs from PTI)