Walia, Chauhan rift over illegal colonies widens

The rift between two senior ministers in the Sheila Dikshit’s government — Ashok Kumar Walia and Rajkumar Chauhan — came out in the open when the latter said that “some people” were trying to “put the blame of stopping development work in unauthorised colonies on him”.

The rift between two senior ministers in the Sheila Dikshit’s government — Ashok Kumar Walia and Rajkumar Chauhan — came out in the open when the latter said that “some people” were trying to “put the blame of stopping development work in unauthorised colonies on him”.

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In his statement at the Delhi assembly, Chauhan said the officer who ordered stopping of development work was on leave when the said UD department meeting, which took the decision, took place.

Chauhan held the charge of urban development department, which is looking after the regularisation process of unauthorised colonies, till December 3, 2010.

“The officer will either have the minutes of the meeting or a letter from me on the basis of which he issued the order to stop the development work. Ask him to produce that communication,” he said.

Chauhan’s statement came two days after urban development minister Ashok Kumar Walia pointed out that he took charge of the department on December 4, while the decision to stop work was taken on November 18 and the order for the same was issued on November 29.

The Opposition BJP had cornered Walia during the debate on unauthorised colonies in the assembly on January 11 and had singled him out for stopping the development works.

The issue of unauthorised colonies was echoed in the assembly on the last day of its winter session too with the leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Malhotra crossing swords with chief minister Sheila Dikshit.