CM Arvind Kejriwal may hire officers from outside Capital

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office might soon have officials from outside the national Capital as dozen of officers are set to leave the Delhi Secretariat. According to sources, almost five officers have refused to work for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office fearing that they would be targeted like previous IAS officers in those positions.

The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) is currently running short of officers and, if sources in the government are to be believed, it may soon become “officer-less”.

According to sources, since Kerjiwal could not get a fresh set of officers, he was looking to bring in officials from outside Delhi or appoint private persons on a co-terminus basis. The Delhi government is already working with a minimum number of officers than its assigned strength.

“The CM had approached around 10-12 officers to work in his office, but they politely refused to take up the new assignment, fearing they would be targeted by the CBI like principal secretary Rajendra Kumar and deputy secretary Tarun Kumar, who are facing multiple allegations after that they were suspended in 2016.

“In this situation, the Chief Minister will have no option but to hire officers from outside Delhi. Indian Revenue Services officer Sukesh Jain, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in CM office, has already applied for repatriation to his parent cadre which is likely to be accepted,” a senior government official said.

In a fix

There is an urgent requirement of officers in the CMO as it supervises all government work
Dozens of officials are set to leave and others refuse to work with the CMO for fear of being targetted  like previous IAS officers