NEW DELHI: Deputy Chief Minister Shri Manish Sisodia slammed Lieutenant Governor Shri VK Saxena for holding back the approval on the appointment of Principals on 244 posts in Delhi Government schools. In a press conference held on Sunday, Shri Manish Sisodia said, “*If LG had not taken over the services department unconstitutionally, every school would have had a permanent principal. File for the appointment of 370 principals was sent to LG; but he has withheld the appointment of principals on 244 posts. LG wants the government to conduct a study on whether the principals are required in schools or not, this is insensitive and ridiculous. There should be a principal in every school – is there a need to study this? Instead of studying the need for the principals in schools, a study should be conducted on whether Delhi needs LG or not. If the Delhi government would have had the control of the services department, all the recruitments would have been done in a month. LG and Centre are adamant to take over the services department but they are not worried about getting the principals appointed. LG just wants to bully the government because he has control over the services department and is not allowing the appointment of principals. It is very unfortunate that a person sitting on a constitutional post is saying that a study should be done on whether a principal is needed for running schools or not.”
Deputy Chief Minister Shri Manish Sisodia said, “The LG in a press release on Saturday claimed that he has given the approval for the appointment of Principals on 126 posts which had been held back by the Delhi Government in the past. This is another ridiculous ‘bunch of lies’ presented by the LG office. The LG has made a mockery of the whole governance system in Delhi, just because he has unconstitutional power to control the services department. If the LG had not taken over the Services Department unconstitutionally then today each school would have had its own permanent Principal. Many of our schools are being run by the Vice-Principals today.”
He added, “The Central Government and the LG are adamant about keeping control of the Services Department, but they are not determined to appoint Principals in schools. They are not at all worried or interested in appointing school principals for the 18 lakh students studying in them. Both are playing with the future of lakhs of students. They have taken over the services department of the Delhi Government unconstitutionally. Neither they themselves are interested in appointing the Principals nor do they want the Delhi Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal to appoint the Principals in schools.”
Shri Manish Sisodia further presented some facts and said, “When our Government was formed in 2015, the Services Department was under Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal. The decisions on the appointment of Principals were taken by the CM, Deputy CM and the Education Minister then. During that time we got many appointments done which were pending for a long time. Vacancies for Principals released by the UPSC were lying vacant since 2010. 58 Principals were appointed in 2015. We sent the proposal for the appointment of Principals on 370 posts after that. As soon as the proposal was sent, the LG office took over the services department unconstitutionally. Before that, all the files were sent to UPSC after my approval or the concerned Minister.”
He continued, “In the meanwhile, the UPSC asked a few questions regarding the 370 posts. But as the LG had taken over the Services Department by then, his office never provided satisfactory answers to the UPSC. It has been 8 years since the LG is dealing with the issue of the appointment of Principals but nothing has happened so far. Two years ago, when the situation started getting worse and more Principals retired, I intervened informally and got the officials connected to the UPSC and the process started again. With the intervention of the Delhi Government, the process for the recruitment of Principals on 363 posts was started. Now their interviews are going on. But about these 370 posts, the LG never gave a satisfactory answer to the UPSC. Whenever I asked the Services Department officials to answer the queries properly, they would mention that the LG has asked them to answer in that specific manner. The LG even asked the Services Department officials to bypass the protocol of showing files to the Education Minister. Not only this, the LG even refused to answer the questions in Vidhan Sabha that provides the budget to the Government.”
The Deputy CM added, “We pushed the Services Department and sent the file for the appointment of 370 Principals to the LG as the administration of schools was being affected. Then in a very unfortunate manner, the LG claimed that he has revived the lapsed post of 126 Principals. Whereas the reality is that the LG has held back the approval on the appointment of Principals on 244 posts and asked the department to conduct an assessment study to check whether these Principals are required in schools or not. These posts had been lying vacant for over the past five years. What kind of joke is this? This is a matter of the future of lakhs of children. Since 2015, we have been sending proposals for the appointment of Principals in schools, in these years the number of schools has increased and the existing Principals have retired. The LG is making a mockery of Delhi’s education system by asking for a study on the need for Principals in schools.”
Shri Manish Sisodia said, “Principals are needed in these 244 schools as well. The LG should go and see that these schools are running without a Principal and we are running these schools with a Vice-Principal. The LG just wants to bully the Delhi Government by not allowing the appointment of Principals. This is just because the LG has the Services Department under his control unconstitutionally. This is insensitive of the LG to hold back the appointment of Principals. If the Delhi Government had control of the Services Department today, the files for the appointment of Principals would not have been stuck for 8 years, but within a month, UPSC would have got answers to all its questions and the process of recruiting Principals would have started. It is unfortunate that the Central Government has unconstitutionally occupied the Services Department, so there are no Principals in schools, and the most unfortunate thing is that a person occupying a Constitutional post is seeking a report on whether a Principal is required to run the school or not.”
Shri Manish Sisodia asked the LG to stop disrupting the work of the Government on the pretext that schools should have a Principal or not and further added, “This is not a joke but a serious issue related to the running schools and the future of the children. The 244 posts on which the approval has been withheld by the LG should also be approved.”
