Delhi women's panel sacks 52, not 223, contractual employees

The Women and Child Development (WCD) Department of the Delhi government has terminated the services of 52 "illegally" appointed contractual employees of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), officials said on Thursday.

The termination has been carried out on the basis of a report submitted by a committee way back in June, 2017.

Earlier, an order issued on April 29 said that the WCD Department had terminated the services of 223 contractual staff, but the department on Thursday issued a statement saying it had directed for the termination of 52 such employees.

According to an official, 223 posts were "illegally" created but only 52 staff were hired and the remaining posts were vacant.

The WCD Department sent a proposal on the basis of the recommendations of the committee to Lt Governor V K Saxena, who approved it, following which the department issued the order, the officials said.

Former DCW chief and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal slammed the order.

In a post in Hindi on X, she said, "LG Saheb has issued a 'Tughlaqi' order to remove all the contract staff of DCW. Today, there are a total of 90 staffers in the Women's Commission, out of which only 8 people have been given by the government, the rest are on a contract for 3 months each." "If all the contract staff are removed, the Women's Commission will be locked. Why are these people doing this? This organisation is built with blood and sweat. Instead of giving it staff and protection, you are destroying it from the roots? As long as I am alive, I will not let the Women's Commission be closed. Put me in jail, don't oppress women!" Maliwal said.

The committee was constituted by the then Lt Governor Anil Baijal to look into the complaints of "irregular and illegally created posts and contractual appointments" in February, 2017 at DCW, said the statement from the WCD Department.

"The committee, headed by the then Chief Secretary and comprising Principal Secretary (Finance), Secretary (WCD) and Secretary (Law) as members, after inquiry, had found the appointments and the processes that were followed, to be illegal and had held the appointments to be invalid ab initio", it said.

The committee had recommended that the appointment of existing contractual staff engaged without having sanctioned posts, are void ab initio and they cannot be allowed to continue, it said.

"However, the DCW and its then chairperson, Swati Maliwal, who in the first instance had appointed these individuals, illegally kept the recommendations of the Committee in abeyance and the same could be moved by the WCD Department only upon her demitting office recently," the statement added.

The officials said that currently, 52 contractual staffers were employed.