Delhi Lt Governor Trying To Act Against Assembly Committees: AAP

The AAP on Monday alleged that Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena is trying to "act" against Vidhan Sabha committees and has written to the chief secretary and the assembly seeking details on their functioning.

Party national spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj told a press conference that the Petitions Committee of the Delhi assembly had recommended action against officials on three different issues.

But the Lt Governor (LG), instead of taking action against them, decided to take action against the committee, he alleged.

There was no immediate reaction from the LG office to the allegations.

"The Delhi LG is trying to act against Vidhan Sabha committees. He has written to Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar and the Delhi Vidhan Sabha questioning how the committees are functioning and whether they are going against the law," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said. However, he did not share a copy of the letter.

"He feels that they are interfering in the work of government officials. The LG has problems with the committees. This makes it clear that whatever the officials do to interfere in the functioning of the government is done at the behest of the LG," he alleged.

Citing instances where the Petitions Committee of the Delhi assembly intervened, Mr Bhardwaj said that the committee had taken up the matter of sacking of OPD (outdoor-patient department) employees in state-run hospitals.

"OPD employees working for months were sacked, leaving the counters empty. During the Petitions Committee hearing, it was found that two IAS officers were deliberately sitting on files and when the committee intervened, those issues were resolved," he said.

"The committee had recommended to the LG to take action against Health Secretary Amit Singla and Principal Secretary, Finance, AC Verma but nothing was done," Mr Bhardwaj claimed.

He said that Mr Singla and Mr Verma were also found to be involved in stopping salaries of doctors employed in Mohalla Clinics.

"Despite having crores of rupees in its (mohalla clnincs' dedicated) account, mohalla clinics were unable to disburse salaries of doctors and money was stopped for conducting tests. It was found by the committee that Singla and Verma were involved in too," he said.

In another instance, Mr Bhardwaj claimed, before Diwali, the social welfare department had stopped disbursing pension of senior citizens and poor people.

"The Petitions Committee had recommended action against Social Welfare Director Pooja Joshi but again no action was taken against here by the LG. This goes to show that all this was being done on the directions of the LG," he said.

Mr Bhardwaj said the Petitions Committee is currently hearing a matter related to supply of ration.

"Ever since the implementation of the 'One Nation One Ration' scheme, people are complaining that their ration shops have either stopped supplying ration or are supplying them in less quantity. We are hearing the matter and have summoned officers of the food and supplies department," he said.

Last year in July, Lt Governor Saxena had asked the assembly speaker to make changes in rules for the conduct of business and procedure of the House under the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021.

The Act accords primacy to Delhi's LG over the elected government and according to it, the "government" in Delhi means the "Lieutenant Governor".

Sources in the LG office had said that even 14 months after the GNCTD (Amendment) Act, 2021, came into effect, the Delhi assembly kept necessary amendments in its 'Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business' pending.

It was pointed out that the Assembly and its committees were making rules to enable themselves to consider the matters of the day-to-day administration of Delhi or conduct inquiries in relation to administrative decisions in contravention of the Act, the sources had said.

The Delhi Assembly Speaker's office in July last year had stated the GNCTD (Amendment) Act "prohibits" the assembly and its committees from making enquiries into administrative decisions.  "Then what will the committees look into? United Nations affairs? Committees of the legislature look into administrative decisions and ask the government to fix responsibility of individual officers if found guilty by the committees," it had said.

The legislature enforces accountability of the executive through these committees, the speaker's office had said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)