Bharadwaj, LG’s office bicker over officer running Asha Kiran home

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday questioned lieutenant governor VK Saxena on why an officer “suspended” for several years for allegedly taking bribes was appointed as administrator of Asha Kiran home for the intellectually challenged, where 14 inmates died in July.Officials of Raj Niwas rebutted that the home administrator was appointed internally by the social welfare department, which is a “fully and totally transferred subject” under the “control of Delhi CM and the minister concerned”.Addressing a press conference, minister Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed that the administrator of Asha Kiran, Rahul Aggarwal, was arrested by CBI in 2016 for accepting a “bribe” and was suspended for five years. “I want to know on what grounds the LG appointed Aggarwal as administrator of the shelter home where various irregularities and shortcomings have been reported and an extraordinarily large number of deaths of inmates," Bharadwaj said.Aggarwal could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.Bharadwaj also said that the power of transfer and posting of officers was LG’s prerogative through the services department. He indicated that the post of administrator of the shelter was considered “very lucrative” due to opportunities for making money through the purchase of ration, medicines and various other items.“I want to ask the BJP-led central govt and LG when all these things are available in the public domain, what was then the compulsion to hand over the responsibility of Asha Kiran to such a corrupt officer?” Bharadwaj said.The LG’s office, however, insisted that Aggarwal was posted as administrator of the home by the minister concerned and not Saxena. “The administrator was not appointed by LG. He was, of course, posted to the social welfare department being a DANICS officer on Feb 15, 2021 with the approval of the then LG,” the Raj Niwas official said. An official order of the services department stated that Aggarwal was being transferred to the social welfare department as a deputy director.An official of LG’s office said, “The press statement issued by AAP is blatantly wrong and arrogantly misleading and is typical abuse and scoot by AAP and its leaders and ministers.” The official added that the social welfare department hasn’t had a minister after Raaj Kumar Anand’s resignation. “CM Arvind Kejriwal, even when out on bail, found time to accept Anand’s resignation and forward it to LG, but did not deem it fit to appoint a new minister for the sensitive department, which, more than any other, requires political oversight,” the official maintained.Saurabh Bharadwaj in a post on X accused the LG office of lying. “All transfers and postings are done by LG or officers under him. No such file comes to ministers. LG office should show the file where Administrator of Asha Kiran shelter home was appointed by Minister, Bharadwaj wrote on X.