By asserting that he had the sole authority to appoint and transfer anyone from “steno to IAS officers”, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najib Jung on Wednesday intensified the war with the Arvind Kejriwal administration over appointment of bureaucrats.

In a letter to Kejriwal, Jung also said he has been vested with power to decide on major policy issues. The L-G also cancelled all appointments made by the State government in the last four days.

Kejriwal, meanwhile, dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi complaining that the Centre was trying to run his government through the L-G.

Mentioning the various postings and transfers made by the L-G, Kejriwal told the Prime Minister that the elected government must have a say in the allocation of work to senior officers.

The controversy was triggered by the appointment of Shakuntala Gamlin as acting Chief Secretary in Delhi. Kejriwal opposed Gamlin’s appointment on the ground that she allegedly tried to favour two Reliance Infra-owned power companies through an ₹11,000-crore loan. Despite Kejriwal’s strong opposition, Jung had appointed her to the post on Friday.

Home Minister steers clear Meanwhile, Home Minister Rajnath Singh maintained that there was no interference and efforts should be made to settle the crisis amicably.

Singh’s neutral posturing is a little different from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who stated that Delhi’s experiment with the Aam Aadmi Party was proving “costly”.

The Home Minister was pragmatic when he spoke to reporters after his meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee in the morning: “The Delhi L-G and CM should sit together and find a solution to the ongoing standoff.”

The L-G aggravated matters by asserting that transfers/postings issued by the AAP government in the last four days were not valid as they did not have his approval.

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