Files moving slowly, Lieutenant-Governor says in letter to Kejriwal

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 21

Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) VK Saxena, in a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has mentioned the delay in the appointment and constitution of statutory bodies.

In the letter dated February 19, the L-G said the issue hit the very basic statutory guarantees that the government seeks to provide to the citizens.

The L-G Secretariat has been in receipt of four proposals, he said in the letter. These proposals include Constitution of State Level Monitoring Committee under Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rule, 2011, notified under Environment Protection Act, 1986, which will oversee compliance by local bodies and effective implementation of the rule.

Declaration of District Magistrates as Responsible Sanitation Authority (RSA) under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Rehabilitation Act, 2013, is the second proposal that sent to the L-G Secretariat. It will prohibit the persons from engagement or employment for hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks and also ensure modern technologies are used and no manual handling is being done.

Constitution of the Governing Council of the Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital (RGSSH), the third proposal, will act as a Principal Executive Authority with power to review actions of all committees. The fourth proposal was Constitution of Search-cum-Selection Committee for the appointment of Chairperson, Board of Governors, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, (IIITD), which will suggest and shortlist candidates for the appointment.

“Clearly, these are important Committees/ Bodies/ Appointments that are entrusted with statutory responsibilities that inter alia address environment, social justice, public health and highly specialised technical education concerns that affect the common Delhi residents, not to mention the most marginalised Scheduled Caste/ Valmiki communities as indeed sick and ailing patients and deserving students,” Saxena wrote in the letter.

He underlined the delay in the process. The L-G said for plastic waste, the proposal was moved by the Department of Urban Development in May 2023, but the minister sat with it for eight months and forwarded the file without any addition on January 16.

Similarly, he raised concerns with other bodies. For RSA, he said the file was pending since September 2023 and it was sent on January 19, but the file was first submitted to Manish Sisodia in June 2022.

The L-G pointed out that the proposal regarding the appointment of Governing Council for RGSSH was submitted in December 2022 and was forwarded to him last month. He said IIITD proposal has been stonewalled for five years.

Listing other issues, Saxena said, “You would agree that such omissions and commissions are on the part of the government and its ministers. I would advise you to issue a directive to all ministers to ensure that all matters submitted to them are disposed of expeditiously.”

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#Arvind Kejriwal #VK Saxena