If LG had not taken over services dept, every school would have principal: Sisodia

New Delhi, Feb 5 (IANS) Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday slammed Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena for holding back the approval on the appointment of principals on 244 posts in Delhi government schools.

In a press briefing, Sisodia said, "If LG had not taken over the services department unconstitutionally, every school would have had a permanent principal. The file for the appointment of 370 principals was sent to LG, but he has withheld the appointment of principals on 244 posts."

Sisodia further claimed that the LG wants the government to conduct a study on whether the principals are required in schools or not.

"This is insensitive and ridiculous. There should be a principal in every school - is there a need to study this? Instead of studying the need for the principals in schools, a study should be conducted on whether Delhi needs LG or not. If the Delhi government would have had the control of the services department, all the recruitments would have been done in a month," he told the media.

"LG just wants to bully the government because he has control over the services department and is not allowing the appointment of principals. It is very unfortunate that a person sitting on a constitutional post is saying that a study should be done on whether a principal is needed for running schools or not," he further added.

"The LG in a press release on Saturday claimed that he has given the approval for the appointment of principals on 126 posts which had been held back by the Delhi Government in the past. This is another ridiculous 'bunch of lies' presented by the LG office," Sisodia said.

Speaking on the appointment of principals, he said when AAP government was formed in 2015, the Services Department was under Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The decisions on the appointment of principals were taken by the CM, Deputy CM and the Education Minister then.

"During that time, we got many appointments done which were pending for a long time. Vacancies for principals released by the UPSC were lying vacant since 2010. 58 principals were appointed in 2015. We sent the proposal for the appointment of principals on 370 posts after that. As soon as the proposal was sent, the LG office took over the services department unconstitutionally. Before that, all the files were sent to UPSC after my approval or the concerned minister," he alleged.

In the meanwhile, he said further, the UPSC asked a few questions regarding the 370 posts. But as the LG had taken over the Services Department by then, his office never provided satisfactory answers to the UPSC.

"It has been 8 years since the LG is dealing with the issue of the appointment of principals but nothing has happened so far. With the intervention of the Delhi Government, the process for the recruitment of principals on 363 posts was started. Now their interviews are going on. But about these 370 posts, the LG never gave a satisfactory answer to the UPSC," the deputy CM said.

He added, "We pushed the Services Department and sent the file for the appointment of 370 principals to the LG as the administration of schools was being affected. Then in a very unfortunate manner, the LG claimed that he has revived the lapsed post of 126 principals. Whereas the reality is that the LG has held back the approval on the appointment of principals on 244 posts and asked the department to conduct an assessment study to check whether these principals are required in schools or not."