Delhi Lt Governor Writes To Atishi, Wants Audit Reports Tabled In Assembly

Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has written to Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, asking that a special sitting of Delhi Assembly be convened for immediately laying the pending 14 reports of the country's top auditor Comptroller and Auditor General on the Table of the House. The Delhi government, which submitted some of the CAG reports ahead of a court hearing on the matter, is yet to declare any dates for the assembly session when the reports can be tabled. 

Eleven of the 14 reports pertain to the period when Arvind Kejriwal was the Chief Minister of Delhi and are about Delhi Transport Corporation, public health and mohalla clinics, liquor duty, pollution, finance and various state undertakings. The LG's directions are in line with the Section 48 of GNCTD Act, 1991. 

The CAG Reports are touchstone of transparency in governance. Placing them before the Legislature expeditiously is a constitutional mandate for the Government, the LG wrote to the Chief Minister.  

By not laying the CAG Reports promptly before the Legislative Assembly, the Government has failed to discharge its constitutional obligation, he added.

The Delhi government had sent the reports to the Raj Bhavan last week. Reports, quoting un-named officials, said one of the CAG reports was pending for 497 days. 

The BJP, which had filed a case in the High Court, had claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party government had sent the reports ahead of a hearing to forestall action from the court. 

"It took the fear of an adverse order by the Delhi High Court for the AAP government to hurriedly submit the long-pending CAG Reports to the LG to seek his permission, for making it possible for the reports to be made public, by placing them in the Assembly," the office of the Lieutenant Governor said in a note.

"The government in a move to save face hurriedly sent 12 reports on December 11 at 3:30 PM just a day before the hearing and later two remaining reports on at 7.50 PM on December 12 to the LG Secretariat, after the hearing had concluded," the note read.