Dikshit has 139 people at her beck and call

Dikshit has 139 people at her beck and call
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, MARCH 25: Forty-six peons, 20 drivers and 16 lower division clerks. All these people form Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s personal staff.

Call it new age nawabism or just an over-staffed chief minister’s secretariat, every department in the Delhi government from the general administration to the ubiquitous fisheries seems to have a representative on the CM’s staff.

According to the official answer supplied by the secretariat in reply to a question raised by Congress MLA Ashoke Singh and BJP MLA Nand Kishore Garg in the Delhi Assembly, the CM has 139 persons on her staff as against the 21 permitted.

Of her 46 peons, 14 draw their salaries from the general administration, seven from forests department, 10 from irrigation and flood control, two from NDMC and even one from fisheries department.

From an assistant grade II official from Lok Nayak Hospital, a driver from animal husbandry and an lower divisional clerk from rehabilitation services to a junior stenographer from the Delhi College of Engineering, the staff have been pooled in from assorted Delhi government departments.

The Delhi Cabinet is allowed a staff of 10. The food and civil supplies minister Yoganand Shastri has the maximum number on his personal staff at 39. Social welfare minister Krishna Tirath is a close second with 35 persons.

They are followed by urban development and health minister A.K Walia with 33, industries and education minister Narendra Nath with 29 and finance minister Mahinder Singh Saathi with 28. The most economical of the Cabinet has turned out to be transport minister Parvez Hashmi who has a staff of nine as against the permitted 10.

The only minister who has hired a sweeper/daftari is Krishna Tirath. She also has the unique distinction of employing a gardener and an ayah.

Speaking to Newsline, MLA Ashok Singh said he raised the question because he wanted to know who was utilising these facilities that had been given to the chief minister and Cabinet ministers.

“There is confusion among the drivers as to who is using these facilities. Before she became chief minister of Delhi, I saw her driving her old Fiat car,” Singh said adding that the extra staff was being used by other officials.