Central IAS officers association to discuss Shakuntala Gamlin appointment issue Monday

New Delhi: The central IAS officers' association has called a meeting tomorrow to discuss the ongoing controversy over the appointment of Delhi's acting chief secretary. The association, which represents over 4,800 IAS officers, has decided to hold its executive committee meeting on May 25, to discuss all the issues affecting the governance and administration, and ultimately public policies, programmes and public delivery systems, a senior officer, who is also the member of the body, said.

The issue of the appointment of IAS officer Shakuntala Gamlin as the acting chief secretary will also be discussed during the meeting. The association will be issuing a resolution on the deliberations after its meeting, he said. The association represents 4,802 officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) working across the country.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had opposed the responsibility given to Gamlin by Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and accused her of favouring power distribution companies. Meanwhile, the Union Home Ministry has issued a notification giving absolute powers to the LG in appointment of bureaucrats and clarifying that he need not "consult" the chief minister on subjects like police and public order.

Following which the Aam Aadmi Party-led government has called a two-day emergency session of the Delhi Assembly from Tuesday to deliberate on the Centre's notification.

Recently, the union territories cadre IAS officers association had expressed its strong objection on the Gamlin issue, saying "the character assassination of a civil servant in public" was unacceptable. Gamlin, a 1984-batch IAS officer of union territories cadre, has been appointed as acting chief secretary due to absence of leave of K K Sharma. Gamlin is Principle Secretary (Power) in Delhi government.