Bureaucracy not in a ‘happy situation’: Ex-Delhi chief secy

Speaking about the tussle between the Delhi government and Centre over the division of power in the national capital, Tripathi added that the problem was not new. “It may appear this is a recent problem but it’s not… it’s the duty of the bureaucrat to see if requests that are being made are right or wrong,” said the former bureaucrat, who was Chief Secretary when Congress’ Sheila Dikshit was the Chief Minister of Delhi.

Sanjeev Chopra, former director of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, was also present at the interaction. Asked if Delhi should be treated like a state or a union territory, he said NDMC, cantonment, and a few other areas should be under the Centre because that’s where the Union government must have complete control. “But where rest of Delhi is concerned, it is better to be merged with some more regions and it should be a state or entity with many powers from urban development and the other bureaus because what you actually need is a very small area and Delhi has actually expanded, it has expanded to such a great extent that in between NCR and the rest, there is such a large area,” he said.