What led to sackings of contractual staff of Delhi women's panel?

The firing of the contractual staff at the Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) on April 29 triggered a row with the body's former chief, Swati Maliwal, lashing out at Lt Governor VK Saxena. An order stated that the creation of 223 posts in the DCW was illegal and all contractual staff hired had to be sacked.

Now an AAP Rajya Sabha MP, Maliwal asserted that the move will leave the DCW in a lurch. She claimed that had it not been for these contractual employees, the DCW's wings, such as Women Helpline 181 and Crisis Intervention Centre, wouldn't have been able to handle the mammoth cases it had dealt with in the past eight years.

But what led to these firings and how many contractual staff of the DCW were affected by the order?

WHAT LED TO THE SACKINGS?

On April 29, the Women and Child Department (WCD) issued the order to sack the contractual employees of the DCW. It referred to the findings of a 2017 report that was submitted to the Delhi Lt Governor.

As per the order, the creation of 223 posts in DCW was illegal and no sanction from the Finance Department and the Lt Governor was taken. The order, passed by Additional Director Dr Navlendra Kumar Singh, also pointed out that no assessment was carried out before the creation of the new posts in the women's panel.

The story begins in September 2016. The DCW created 223 additional posts in the meeting held on September 9, 2016. A few weeks later, the WCD asked the Member Secretary of the DCW to apprise the commission regarding the terms and conditions of the grants being provided to them.

The conditions say that the DCW "shall not do any act or undertake any activity, which entails additional financial liability for the government without the approval of the Administrative Department and Finance and Planning Department, such as the creation of posts".

In October 2016, the WCD again told the DCW that the creation of 223 additional posts had no approval from the Delhi Lt Governor.

In February 2017, then Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal issued an order to constitute a committee "to examine the issues, which is illegal appointments and several irregularities in the DCW". The committee was formed under the Chief Secretary's chairmanship and the Principal Secretary (Finance), Secretary (Law and Justice), and Secretary (DWCD) were made its members.

The committee, in its 2017 report, opined that the creation of 223 posts and the hiring of the contractual staff against them were irregular as the laid down procedure was not followed and the Delhi Lt Governor's approval wasn't taken.

As per the sacking order of the WCD, the DCW has only 40 sanctioned posts.

By creating the additional posts and hiring contractual employees, the DCW violated the statutory provisions of the DCW Act, 1994 and various standing instructions of the Department of Finance and Planning Department, an April 29 order reads. It further claimed that no study was conducted to assess the actual requirement of additional staff and eligibility criteria for each post.

"No administrative approval and expenditure sanctioned was obtained from the Delhi government for engaging such manpower and applications for such posts were not formally invited. The role and responsibility for any of these posts were not assigned and emoluments of some of the incumbents, which were decided at the time of initial appointment, were enhanced very sharply and arbitrarily," the order issued by the WCD Additional Director read.

The sacking of the DCW's contractual employees last month was based on the 2017 report. It ordered the Member Secretary, DCW to discontinue the services of all contractual employees who were hired in violation of the laid-down procedures.

BACKLASH AND CLARIFICATION

Maliwal held a press conference right outside the DCW building in central Delhi's ITO. She claimed that those hired as contractual staff at DCW included acid and sexual assault survivors. Meanwhile, social media users questioned why the order to sack 223 employees was given.

Moreover, Maliwal asserted that the commission had never hired all staff against the proposal to create 223 posts.

"DCW had only 90 staff, of which eight were permanent and the rest were contractual staff. The Delhi Lt Governor wants to put a lock on the doors of the commission with this order. If you feel the present staff were hired illegally, give a replacement to the DCW and then remove the present staff," the AAP MP told India Today.

Soon after the issue snowballed, the WCD issued a statement.

The WCD said it had terminated "the services of 52 illegally appointed contractual employees of the DCW on the basis of a report submitted by a Committee way back in June 2017".

The WCD said Maliwal, then DCW chief, "illegally kept the recommendations of the Committee in abeyance" and that the recommendations of the 2017 committee could get executed only after she demitted her office.