Delhi LG visits Jal Board plant, AAP protests

AAP spokesperson Atishi accused Vinai Kumar Saxena of ‘illegally’ chairing a meeting of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday accused newly appointed lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena of “overstepping his jurisdiction” again as he inspected the entire stretch of the Najafgarh drain from Dhansa to the Wazirabad barrage, while also visiting two facilities of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

Vinai Kumar Saxena took oath as the 22nd Lieutenant Governor of Delhi on May 26 (ANI).

“On May 30, Delhi’s new LG, Vinai Kumar Saxena, called a meeting of DJB officers. Two days after that, AAP raised questions on the legitimacy of the meeting. At that point we thought that the LG was newly elected and perhaps therefore, he was not aware about the constitutional provisions for the NCT of Delhi. But today (Saturday), he once again illegally chaired another meeting of the DJB, without informing the elected government of Delhi, without informing the chief minister of Delhi. He summoned the officials of DJB and also went on an inspection to two sites – Pappankalan sewage treatment plant and Dhansa regulator,” Atishi said in a press conference.

The LG’s office did not respond to requests for a response on AAP’s charge.

Atishi’s comments come a day after Kejriwal called on Saxena at Raj Niwas and ruled out any lack of coordination between the elected government and the LG, who is a representative of the Centre. He also said that he will hold weekly meetings with the LG on Fridays to discuss issues.

Since it came to power, the Delhi government and the LG’s office, held by Saxena’s predecessors, have squared off on several issues, with the former often overruling decisions taken by the Kejriwal administration in what has been seen as a proxy for battle between the AAP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre.

The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the repeated diatribes of AAP leaders, including Atishi, over the inspections shows that the AAP government “fears exposure of its failures”.

“In the DJB, PWD or flood control department, there are lots of complaints regarding cleaning of sewers and major drains under them, apart from complaints of scam in new water supply line laying. The AAP and the Delhi government fear that the new LG’s inspections will expose corruption in DJB, PWD and flood department work on sewer drains cleaning and so they are crying out. AAP leaders including Atishi should note that constitutionally the LG has full control over issues related to land, services and law and order, but there is no restrain on the LG from doing inspection on other issues, especially when there are visible complaints or possibilities of corruption,” said Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor.

Eco-tourism spot along Najafgarh drain: LG

After the inspection on Saturday, the LG said that the Najafgarh drain will be developed as an eco-tourism destination for which a time bound action-plan will be chalked out next week.

Saxena said that a meeting will be convened during the next week with Kejriwal and concerned ministers to chalk out a concrete and time bound plan of action detailing coordinated efforts towards developing the 57km drain. “It will address the issues of water conservation and water logging on a long-term basis and sustainable manner,” he added.