Removal of advisors: AAP attacks Modi govt

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 18

Upping its ante against the BJP-government at the Centre, the AAP today claimed that the move of the Ministry of Home Affairs to declare the appointments of nine advisors of the Delhi Government as “illegal” was done in a bid to deflect attention from the massive criticism the saffron party is facing in the wake of the Kathua and Unnao rapes.

In course, one of the nine advisors whose appointment stands void, Raghav Chadha today offered to the ministry a refund of token amount of Rs 2.50 he accepted for his services as advisor to the Finance Minister while alleging the whole affair smacks of “political vendetta”.

In a terse letter, Chadha wondered if he would have been better placed at a plump position in some public sector undertakings with pecuniary benefits referring how handsome posts were given to some BJP leaders, including Dr Sambit Patra and  Shazia Ilmi, appointed as directors of ONGC Ltd. and Engineers India Ltd.

The Services Department of the city government ordered the cancellation of the creation and of the said posts and coterminous appointments on the premise that the same was not done with the approval of the Centre as mandated by a 1997 circular, also reiterated in 2015.

The AAP also accused the BJP of paralysing the work of the Delhi Government, particularly in the field of education “realising its incapability to build new schools or take up such initiatives at such an extent”.