In what could lead to another face off between the Centre and the Delhi Government, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) on Tuesday said the Kejriwal dispensation cannot appoint non-government representatives to the Delhi Metro Board of Directors. The Ministry has, in the meantime, circulated a Cabinet note to regularise 1797 unauthorised colonies except posh colonies ahead of the Delhi Assembly election early next year. The Centre is likely to issue an order to regularise unauthorised colonies in Delhi within a month.
Making it clear that the Centre will not accept representation of AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Atishi Marlena Jasmine Shah and the party’s Rajya Sabha MP ND Gupta’s son Naveen Gupta to the Delhi Metro Board of Directors, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday there is no scope for non-government official people in the Board.
He cited the case of BJP leader Madan Lal Khurana, who had resigned from the Delhi Metro chairmanship, after the then chief minister Sheila Dikshit objected to his appointment in 2003. Chadha and Atishi had contested the Lok Sabha polls from South and East Delhi seats respectively earlier this year but they lost.
Taking a dig at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Puri said, “We have now different situation where Kejriwal is not suggesting the name of an MP and he is suggesting names of two people who lost elections for MP. The Delhi government should adhere to the conventions and norms and nominate government officers on the Board of Delhi Metro as has been done earlier.”
“I have a situation where the DMRC board is handled with great competence by the serving secretary in the ministry. There is no scope for non-official people in that board,” Puri added.
On July 17, the HUA Ministry had objected to the nomination of Chadha and Atishi and two others to the DMRC board of directors and asked the AAP government to withdraw its non-bureaucrat nominees citing official guidelines. According to the guidelines issued by the Department of Public Enterprises, officials handling the issue concerned should be appointed as government nominee directors.
In a letter to Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Dev dated July 17, Additional Secretary (HUA) K Sanjay Murthy had said the government nominee director bring not only domain knowledge and expertise but are also accountable to various tasks of the company for ensuring time bound implementation of the project
On the regularization of unauthorized colonies, the HUA minister termed as “incorrect” Kejriwal’s claim that the Centre has approved the Delhi government’s proposal on the issue sent in November, 2015. Puri said the Centre has circulated among its stakeholders, including the Delhi government, a Cabinet note based on the report of a panel headed by the lieutenant governor for the regularisation of these colonies and not on the AAP dispensation’s proposal.
In the next seven to 10 days, the ministry will get comments as sought from stakeholders and then it will get approval from the Union cabinet, he said.
As per the proposal, the colonies would be categorised depending on the land they have come up on - government land, agricultural or gram sabha land. The regularisation fee would vary as per ownership.
This is not the first time an effort has been initiated to empower residents of unauthorised colonies on Delhi. In 1993, 567 of 607 such colonies were regularised.