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Abstain from major decisions till directors are appointed, Gahlot tells DMRC MD
New Delhi: Transport minister Kailash Gahlot Monday asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to abstain from taking any major decision until it appoints the
New Delhi: Transport minister Kailash Gahlot Monday asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to abstain from taking any major decision until it appoints the nominees proposed by the Delhi government in the Metro agency’s board of directors.
In a letter to DMRC managing director Mangu Singh, the transport minister Monday said the directors of the DMRC board had met on September 26 even as the directors nominated by the Delhi government were not invited for the meeting.
The DRMC did not comment on the issue.
“The board discussed an agenda item relating to the nomination of directors by the GNCTD (Delhi government) to the board of DMRC, but decided to forward the same to the MoH&UA (ministry of housing and urban affairs) to obtain a legal opinion. Various major decisions pertaining to operation of the Delhi Metro have been taken in the said meeting. I would like to state it on record that decisions taken by the board of directors of DMRC without inviting representatives of Delhi government are illegal and void ab initio,” read Gahlot’s letter.
On July 13, the Delhi government, in a first, had nominated four non-bureaucratic persons as directors to the DMRC’s board. While three of them — Atishi, Raghav Chadha and Naveen Gupta — are Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, the fourth nominee, Jasmine Shah, is the vice-chairperson of the Dialogue and Development Commission, a policy think tank of the Delhi government.
Gahlot said the Delhi government holds 50% share in the DMRC which is similar to the share that the Central government has. “So, the Centre and the Delhi government have an equal share in the number of directors. I have told the DMRC that if such state of affairs continue in the corporation, then the DMRC managing director will be held liable,” he said.
Of a total strength of 17 board directors, presently there are six directors who are government officials — five central government nominees and the managing director, who is a Delhi government nominee.
The nominee directors from the government of India in the DMRC board include Durga Shankar Mishra, secretary of the MoH&UA, who is also the chairman of the board; K Sanjay Murthy, additional secretary (d), MH&UA; vice-chairperson of the Delhi Development Authority Tarun Kapoor; member secretary (NCRPB) Archana Agarwal and MK Gupta, additional member (works), railway board.
Among the directors nominated by the AAP government, Chadha and Naveen Gupta are chartered accountants. Atishi is an academician-turned-politician, while Shah, has worked on city planning and urban affairs.
Earlier, the MoH&UA had written to the Delhi government asking it to withdraw the four names citing that nominating non-government officials will be against the department of public enterprises (DPE) guidelines. The centre asked the Delhi government to instead nominate its top bureaucrats such as the chief secretary, finance secretary and transport commissioner saying they’ll bring “domain knowledge”, “expertise” and “accountability” to make the DMRC into a world-class transport service provider.
