Delhi: Officials reshuffled hours after CBI raids Manish Sisodia's home
A dozen senior IAS officers were transferred between departments, hours after CBI raided the residence of Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia on allegations of corruption in Delhi Excise Policy. Apart from this, around 70 ad hoc DANICS officers were reshuffled as well, mostly from Value Added Tax Officers (VATO) of Department of Trade and Taxes (DVAT) which comes under Sisodia.
Why does this story matter?
The CBI raided Sisodia's house on Friday morning in regards to corruption allegations in the Delhi liquor policy. Allegations regarding the recently dropped liquor sale policy have triggered a dispute between the Delhi government and Lieutenant-Governor (LG) VK Saxena, who had asked for a CBI investigation. Implemented in November 2021, the policy privatized the sale of alcoholic beverages in the national capital.
Bureaucrats accused of sheltering corrupt officials transferred
Among those transferred are special secretary of health and family welfare, Udit Prakash Rai, who will replace Kalyan Sahai Meena as special secretary for administrative reforms. Delhi Lieutenant-Governor (LG) VK Saxena had written to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recommending action against Rai alleging that he had accepted Rs. 50 lakh bribe to extend "undue favors" to an executive engineer in corruption cases.
BJP, AAP point fingers at each other
After the raid, BJP alleged that AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had tipped off the CBI against Sisodia as his position was threatened by Sisodia's growing popularity. AAP had shot back saying that BJP was scared of Kejriwal. Recently, The New York Times had published a story praising the Delhi model of governance, which BJP leader Kapil Mishra had claimed was paid news.
Other transfers in the administration
Vijendra Kumar Rawat would replace Rai, while holding the additional charge of director (Planning). Jitendra Narain will be chairman and managing director of Delhi Finance Corporation (DFC). Vivek Pandey is now secretary (IT) alongside being managing director of Geospatial Delhi Limited. Earlier he was special secretary of Administrative Reforms. Earlier holding charge of secretary (cooperation), Shurbir Singh will now be secretary (power).
