‘Will work as city’s local guardian’: Delhi’s new LG Saxena takes oath

After the swearing-in, Vinai Kumar Saxena, who joined a month after the Jahangirpuri riots, outlined communal harmony as his priority area besides fighting pollution and developing Delhi as a beautiful city and stressed that he will be active in the field rather than staying at Raj Niwas.

Vinai Kumar Saxena, former chairperson of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), took oath as the Capital’s 22nd Lieutenant Governor (LG) on Thursday, over a week after his predecessor Anil Baijal resigned citing personal reasons.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal with Delhi LG Vinai Saxena during the swearing-in ceremony, at Raj Niwas, in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, May 26, 2022. (Photo by Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times)

Saxena, 64, is the first from a non-bureaucratic and non-defence background to be appointed Delhi LG.

After the swearing-in, Saxena, who joined a month after the Jahangirpuri riots, outlined communal harmony as his priority area besides fighting pollution and developing Delhi as a beautiful city and stressed that he will be active in the field rather than staying at Raj Niwas.

Saxena said that he will work as the “local guardian (LG)” for every resident of Delhi rather than the lieutenant governor. “You will find me more in the field than in Raj Niwas,” he said as he thanked President Ram Nath Kovind, PM Narendra Modi, and home minister Amit Shah for entrusting him with the responsibility.

“I have seen for some time that there have been many riots in Delhi. I want to tell everyone that we should work together as brothers,” he said.

Saxena was sworn in by the chief justice of the Delhi high court Vipin Sanghi at a ceremony organised inside a white air-conditioned marquee erected in the green lawns of Raj Niwas where Union minister Giriraj Singh, ministers of state Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma and Meenakashi Lekhi, CM Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues, MP Manoj Tiwari and Parvesh Sahib Singh, leader of the Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, judges of the Delhi high court, BJP and AAP MLAs, as well as top bureaucrats were present.

Later, the new LG had an informal get-together with the CM, the leader of the Opposition, and other dignitaries in the laws of Raj Niwas over breakfast. Kejriwal said the Delhi government will provide full support to the new LG. “With his predecessor we have completed several good developmental projects. I hope to continue the same with Saxena. We are looking forward to it,” Kejriwal told reporters.

“Delhi has some inherent problems, especially pollution like water pollution, air pollution and noise pollution. With Delhi government, central government and the people of Delhi we will try to solve these problems,” the LG said.

The LG appeared sensitive to the challenges being faced by people working in the unauthorised sector.

“A very large section of the population of Delhi is engaged in the unorganised sector doing various small nature of work. We will try to empower them and provide them training equipment, etc. We will take everyone along,” the LG said, adding that he has a dream to make Delhi a city of flowers and a city of joy.

Dramatic scenes were witnessed at the swearing-in event when former Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan walked out in a huff after he was asked by an official to leave a seat reserved for someone else but he did not get another seat after waiting for 15 minutes. BJP leaders Manoj Tiwari and Parvesh Sahib Singh were seen sitting in the third row. A group of officers from the LG’s office tried to persuade the former minister against leaving the venue but he did not return.

Dr Harsh Vardhan later said in a tweet that he occupied a seat according to the request of an official present there, but he got up after another official asked him to leave because it was reserved (for someone else). “I waited for 15 minutes for a seat. I did not get any, so I returned,” he tweeted.

“I feel sorry that I could not attend the swearing-in ceremony of the LG of Delhi from where I am an MP and where I remained socially active for long,” Dr Harsh Vardhan said and congratulated the new LG.

An official who was sitting in one of the front rows said there was a mismatch in seating arrangements due to which some confusion prevailed before the swearing-in ceremony started.

Saxena worked in the private sector for three decades before heading the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) of the central government for six years. Baijal, who headed Delhi’s government for five years and four months, had confrontationS with the AAP government on many occasions including the doorstep delivery of ration, CCTV cameras’ installation, and the appointment of special public prosecutors.

Saxena has assumed office at a time when the city’s elected government and the Centre are locked in a battle over delayed municipal polls. Saxena will directly oversee issues related to land, services, police and law and order, which come under the purview of the LG and not the city’s elected representatives. The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021, implemented last year, gives primacy to the LG over the elected government in the city.

Saxena will also have to look into filling thousands of vacancies in various government departments, recruitment in most of which got delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He will also have to consider the new excise policy 2022-23, which is likely to be submitted to him soon for consideration by the government.

Saxena is a Kanpur University alumnus and a licensed pilot. He took over as KVIC chief on October 27, 2015 and as the head of the Khadi Commission, brought changes in the marketing strategy of the enterprise due to which khadi sales figures jumped from ₹1,070 crore in 2014-15 to ₹3,215 crore in 2018-19 —a jump of over 200%. Similarly, in the village industries sector, the sales increased from ₹31,965 crore in 2014-15 to ₹71,100 crore — a growth of over 122%. The total turnover of khadi and village industries products has been around ₹74,315 crore in pre-Covid times.

In March last year, Saxena was named by the Union government as a member of the national committee to commemorate 75 years of India’s independence. In November 2020, he was picked as a member of the Padma awards selection panel for 2021.

Saxena joined JK Group in Rajasthan in 1984 as an assistant officer and worked for 11 years in various capacities in its white cement plant. He was transferred to Gujarat in 1995 as general manager to look after a proposed port project. Later, he became the CEO and was made director of the Dholera Port Project.

In 2008, he was accorded an international felicitation by the United Nations Decade of Sustainable Development (UNDESD), UNESCO and UNDP in association with the International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP), US, for his “outstanding contribution to environment protection and water security”. On September 9, 2020, Saxena was nominated a member of the research council of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology.

Saxena was also actively involved in the social sector. In 1991, he founded the non-governmental organisation National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), which carried out extensive relief work in the earthquake-hit areas of Kutch in 2001.The organisation also publicly opposed activist Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) during the Sardar Sarovar Dam Project. “His immense social and legal efforts in keeping at bay the vested interests that tried to disrupt the good work of Sardar Sarovar Project are also highly regarded in Gujarat, MP and Rajasthan,” according to his profile on KVIC.