LG has powers on public order and services issues: Home ministry

New Delhi: A week after a very public power tussle erupted between Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung and the AAP government in Delhi over posting and transfer of senior officers, the home ministry clarified that the former could exercise powers on issues of public order and services.

"The state legislative assembly shall have power to make laws for the whole or a part of National Capital Territory of Delhi with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the State list or Concurrent list so far as any such matter is applicable to union territories, except matters with respect to Public Order, Police and Land," clarified a home ministry notification issued on Thursday but made public only on Friday.
The notification clarified that the Lt. Governor remained the administrator of the union territory.
"Article 239AA inserted by the Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment Act, 1991) provides that the UT of Delhi shall be called NCT of Delhi and the administrator thereof shall be designated as Lt. Governor." The notification clearly indicated that IAS and IPS officers were administered by the central government.
"UT cadre consisting of Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service personnel is common to UT of Delhi, Chandigarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Puducherry and states of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Mizoram which is administered by the central government through MHA," the notification pointed out.
"National Capital Territory of Delhi does not have its own state public services," it stated.
The AAP government, which took office in February, has been asserting its administrative powers on posting and transfer of senior officers, particularly from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
The tussle between Jung and the Arvind Kejriwal government started over the appointment of senior bureaucrat Shakuntala Gamlin as the acting chief secretary on May 15. The chief minister had accused Gamlin of lobbying for power distribution companies in the national capital.