Condemning the Delhi Lieutenant governor (LG) office notice sacking Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) staff, former DCW chief and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal demanded revocation of the order.

In a strongly-worded reaction to the summary sacking of the staff of the DCW, she said the commission’s workers, who have been fighting for the rights of women, do not deserve such a raw deal.

Addressing a press conference at the DCW office on Thursday, Mahiwal said there were in all 90 members of the commission’s staff, including eight regulars. They have been working tirelessly for the women for the past eight years, that too, on meager remunerations with pending salaries.

Maliwal’s reaction came in the wake of a directive issued to the DCW by the Women and Child Development (WCD) Department of the Delhi government to sack the contractual employees who, it said, were hired without following a procedure.

She claimed that the DCW has heard over 1,70,000 cases and helped thousands of sexual harassment survivors with counseling, provided assistance to lakhs of affected women during trials in courts.

She further said that if all the contract employees are sacked, the Commission would come to a standstill. Hence, she questioned the LG for her nod to the move.

Stating that the DCW was raised to the present day status with the blood and sweat of its staff and their efforts, she lamented that instead of giving a protection to them, they are being sacked. She asserted that she won’t let the DCW to be shut.

“Put me in jail, but don’t oppress women,” Maliwal said.

She asked how the work of the commission could be carried out with just eight regular workers if the 82 contractual workers are sacked.

“For nine years, we had been asking for staff, but they did not conceded to our demand, and when we hired the workers, they are questioning the move,” Maliwal alleged.

Meanwhile, the WCD Department, fully under the control of GNCTD, 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, an official communiqué said.

As per the department, “The Committee was constituted by the then LG, to look into the complaints of irregular and illegally created posts and contractual appointments thereto in February, 2017 at DCW,”

It is said, “The Committee, headed by the then chief secretary, comprising Principal Secretary Finance, Secretary (WCD) and Secretary (LAW) as its members, after an inquiry, had found the appointments and the processes that were followed, to be illegal and had held the appointments to be invalid ab-initio.”

The committee had recommended that the appointment of existing contractual staff engaged without having sanctioned posts, without following the due procedure are void ab-initio and same cannot be allowed to continue.