Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj has written to Lt Governor VK Saxena recommending the suspension of Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar and his staff for allegedly leaking the action taken report in the Burari Hospital’s sexual harassment case to the media on December 25.
The minister also proposed that disciplinary proceedings should be initiated against Kumar by the National Capital Civil Service Authority (NCCSA).
There was no immediate reaction from the chief secretary. Bharadwaj, in his note to Saxena, mentioned that on December 24 itself, he gave directions to the CS to act on such a serious matter, soliciting the formation of a committee, filing of action taken report (ATR) within six hours, preliminary report within 24 hours and final report within seven days.
On Monday, Bharadwaj had issued a statement, saying that he had not received any ATR from Kumar on his “urgent note” on the matter. However, the office of the chief secretary had said he submitted the ATR on Monday.
It also alleged that the health minister’s directions on Sunday were leaked to a political party much before it reached him and proposed disciplinary proceedings against his secretary. In the official communication to Saxena, Bharadwaj alleged that the chief secretary in his Monday note hid important information that the staff at the officer’s residence refused to accept the communication from the health minister’s office.
The minister said that threatening to suspend the PS of the Health Minister is an attempt to “intimidate” the minister’s staff to paralyse the working of the minister’s office. “Disciplinary proceedings should be initiated against the chief secretary and his staff for leaking the sensitive ATR (official notes) with the media,” he added.
Bharadwaj also attached the photo of his official car at the residence of the chief secretary to prove that his staff had indeed gone to deliver his directions to Kumar on the evening of December 24. The minister said the note had clearly written ‘urgent’ on its cover but the chief secretary’s staff refused to accept it. He added that the note was also sent to the secretary health in the evening of December 24 and he had even acknowledged it.
“I believe the secretary (health) must have informed the chief secretary about the urgent situation to be dealt with. If he did not, even this calls for an explanation from the secretary (health), which the chief secretary conveniently ignored for the reasons best known to him,” Bharadwaj said in his note. The minister added that despite so much uproar in the media about the incident and newspapers publishing his directions on December 25, it was not possible that the chief secretary was not aware of it till 2.15 pm on Monday.
“Clearly, the chief secretary is manipulating the facts to show that he submitted the ATR in exactly six hours just to cover the compliance of the directions in the stipulated time,” he alleged. Alleging that the chief secretary or his office shared the official note with the media, Bharadwaj said it raised doubts about his “political neutrality”.
The health minister also said that even the Speaker in the past had raised concerns about officials of vigilance and services departments threatening the staff of the legislative assembly and demanded action against them.
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