Former DCW Chief Swati Maliwal addressing the media in New Delhi on Thursday. | Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
The Women and Child Development Department (WCD) of the Delhi government terminated the services of 52 “illegally appointed” contractual employees of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), officials said on Thursday.
WCD officials said that a proposal drafted by a 2017 committee, which found over 200 posts in the commission to have been created illegally, was sent to Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena for approval.
“The order to terminate the services was issued after the L-G gave a nod to the proposal,” a senior official said.
Several Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders held the L-G responsible for the sackings and termed the WCD order “arbitrary”.
“The L-G in his Tughlaqi farman [arbitrary order] has directed the removal of all contractual staff of the commission,” said former DCW chairperson and AAP’s Rajya Sabha member Swati Maliwal. She said many of the terminated employees were survivors of various crimes, including acid attacks, domestic violence, and rape. The commission, after Ms. Maliwal’s resignation in January this year, remains without a chairperson.
The BJP attacked Ms. Maliwal and alleged that she was responsible for the terminations.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said the DCW employees were sacked due to the unconstitutional and anarchic functioning of the AAP government, especially DCW’s former chairperson, Swati Maliwal.
2017 report
A senior WCD official said the commission had “illegally” created 223 posts in 2016.
The official added that a committee, founded in February 2017 by the then Delhi L-G Anil Baijal to investigate complaints of illegally created posts in the commission, had stated in its report that “the actions taken by the DCW are beyond its delegated power and in violation of the DCW Act”.
The DCW had also been informed at the time that the created posts had not been approved by the L-G, the official said.
“The DCW and its former chairperson, Swati Maliwal, who in the first instance had appointed these [now-sacked] individuals, illegally kept the recommendations of the committee in abeyance and the same could be moved by the WCD only upon her demitting the office,” the official said.
‘Direct impact’
Ms. Maliwal claimed that the termination of so many employees would affect the functioning of the DCW.
“There are 90 staff members in the commission, out of which only eight are permanent. The remaining 82 are contractual workers employed for low wages on a three-month contract,” Ms. Maliwal said
She added that the move would lead to the closure of multiple DCW programmes, including the Rape Crisis Cell and Mahila Panchayat. “The L-G’s move aims to render the DCW as ineffective as other women’s commissions in the country. We have fearlessly advocated for women’s rights and have urged for the allocation of funds and staff to the commission. We demand the withdrawal of the order,” she said.
Senior AAP leaders and Delhi Ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi hit out at the L-G, accusing him of “rendering thousands of people unemployed in the last year and a half”. “The L-G’s aim is to stop all the good work of the Delhi government,” Mr. Bharadwaj said, while Ms. Atishi slammed the BJP for “ruining commissions that fight for the rights of victims”.
Earlier dismissals
Mr. Saxena had, in July last year, directed the termination of services over 400 employees hired by the Delhi government in private roles in at least 23 departments, autonomous bodies and PSUs. The employees had been engaged in posts including fellow, associate fellow, adviser, specialist, research officer, and consultant.
A statement from the Raj Niwas at the time had said the Delhi government had hired the employees “by back door entry” while “flouting Constitutional provisions of reservation”.
“The employees had been hired on fixed terms by depriving people belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes from their own Constitutional rights,” officials had said, adding that the employees had been hired despite being unable to meet the eligibility criteria laid down by the advertisements issued for the posts.
