NewDelhi/Nagpur: Appointment of newly appointed Swati Maliwal as DCW chief was on Wednesday rejected by Delhi lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung.
30-year-old Swati Maliwal advisor (grievances) to the CM – was recently appointed as the new chief of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) by the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government.
Lt Governor Najeeb Jung has asked for an explanation as to why his approval was not sought on the appointment.
Sources said the LG has questioned the procedure by which the appointment was made. According to procedure, the file clearing the appointment of the DCW chief is sent to the LG for approval, which apparently was not followed in the present case, the sources said.
An RTI activist and youngest member of the core committee of India Against Corruption, Maliwal has been associated with Kejriwal’s work at Parivartan with the marginalized and his concept of Swaraj since 2006. She was expected to replace current DCW chief, Barkha Shukla Singh, soon after her tenure ends later this week.
Maliwal’s appointment as advisor (grievances) had run into a controversy with opposition parties like the BJP and Congress hitting out at Kejriwal for giving space to people from the party in government. However, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) functionaries say Maliwal, who is married to senior AAP functionary Naveen Jaihind, is not a member of the party and that she has much to her credit as an activist who has worked on RTI, Swaraj and the marginalized in Trilokpuri and Sunder Nagri.
This is not the first time that the Delhi government and the Lt-Governor have not seen eye to eye over appointments.
Kejriwal government on May 20 also challenged the authority of lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung over issuing instructions to Delhi government even as chief minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed that “everybody has got united against us”.
