Bureaucrats are not happy with Raj Niwas as a series of proposed development projects have either been delayed or are completely stuck due to undue interference by officials closed to lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung. Top sources told
The Pioneer that senior officials are cross with officials posted at Raj Niwas who keep interfering in their works/projects. The Raj Niwas also failed to rationalise the work allocation properly in the Delhi Government. Those who are close to lieutenant Governor or Raj Niwas are getting plum postings in city the administration. For instance, 1984 batch officer Shakuntala Gamlin is currently holding five departments while several competent officials have been sidelined. The nitpicking by the officials posted at Raj Niwas has resulted in many works/projects being badly affected. The revenue collection of city Government has fallen drastically but the lG office is yet to take a call on several proposals including an increase in VAT on diesel, petrol and other items, sources said.
There has been a decline of about Rs3,000 crore in revenue generation in the current financial year. There has been considerable delay in the Phase-III Metro project as the administration was still in the process of acquiring land in Trilokpuri, Punjabi Bagh and Naraina. There is very little progress in the Barapullah Knowledge Park and Skill Development Centre at Jaunpur. The Delhi Government has planned to lay foundation stone of Rs2,200 crore Barapullah Knowledge Park project by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but due lack of clearance on the part of DSIIDC and other agencies, the State Government has not take decision to invite the Prime Minister till date. The Rs2,400 crore project to make Vikaspuri to Wazirabad signal-free has also been delayed. The lack of preparedness on the part of the administration had forced it to defer the implementation of the pollution under control (PUC) certificates in vehicles. The Government had proposed that only those vehicles, possessing PUCs, be provided petrol and diesel in the city.
“Once the administration fixed a deadline for PUC certificates, it realised that the petrol pump owners were not ready to implement it. That’s why it had to defer the deadline.” Sources said the policy paralysis had also taken its toll on the purchase of about 1,200 new buses for the Transport Department. “Nothing concrete has been done to induct new buses in the DTC,” a senior bureaucrat said.What has come as a major shock to many in the bureaucracy is the fact that the administration was yet to allot 9,000 Economically Weaker Section (EWS) houses to the Delhiites. “The houses are ready but the allotment procedure is so complex that not a single house has been allotted so far.”The Delhi Government has even stuck on the contentious issue of regularisation of the unauthorised colonies.
At a meeting at Raj Niwas last week, the Chief Secretary had proposed that the colonies be regularised on ‘as is where is basis’, the lieutenant Governor’s Secretary Nutan Guha Biswas rejected the proposal saying “not enough”.