In a major cabinet reshuffle by the Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi minister Saurabh Bhardwaj, in-charge of Services and Vigilance, was on Tuesday stripped off the post. Delhi PWD Minister Atishi was given the portfolio.
The move comes after Union home minister Amit Shah, in Parliament debate, repeatedly referred to how files were asked for at midnight, and officers were asked not to report to Special Secretary (Vigilance). He also said that Services Secretary was transferred immediately after the May 11 Supreme Court verdict.
Shah claimed that AAP transferred specific officers to the vigilance department as it had files related to the liquor scam in the Union Territory.
He said that after the apex court gave control of services to the Delhi government, AAP immediately transferred officers to the vigilance department probing various scams including the renovation of the Chief Minister’s residence.
“Why was the vigilance department only targeted and not the transport department, jal board, the road and building department, or the social welfare department? This is because the vigilance department has the files of the excise policy cases and liquor scam,” Amit Shah said.
The reshuffle comes in less than twenty four hours after the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was passed in the Rajya Sabha late pn Monday. The contentious Bill, which significantly empowers the Delhi Lieutenant Governor and curtains the powers of the chief minister, had already been passed in the Lok Sabha.
Both Atishi and Bharadwaj were inducted into the cabinet in March following the resignations of Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain. The file with changes in the cabinet portfolios has already been sent to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor for assent.
AAP minister Saurabh Bhardwaj will continue to hold the portfolios of Health, Industries, Urban Development, Irrigation and Flood Control and Water.
Atishi, the sole woman in the seven-member Delhi Cabinet, has the largest number of portfolios under her belt. The last reshuffle placed her a notch below Kejriwal in the cabinet. Other significant departments that Atishi holds include Public Works, Education and Power.
According to a report in Indian Express, Atishi, 42, who has been brought up in Delhi, attended Springdales School and went on to study history at St Stephen’s College. She then went to Oxford University for her Masters in history on a Chevening scholarship and joined the Magdalen College, Oxford as a Rhodes scholar.
In the last cabinet reshuffle, Atishi was given additional charges of finance, planning and revenue in the Delhi cabinet. She had already been holding the portfolios of power, education, art, culture and language, tourism, higher education, training and technical education and public relations.
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