‘Surprised govt not aware of traffic plans’

Lieutenant governor Anil Baijal wrote to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday saying that he was ‘surprised’ by the CM’s perception that the elected government was ‘not made aware’ of work done on resolving traffic bottlenecks.

In his letter, Baijal informed Kejriwal that not only the minutes of the review meetings on the issue were “endorsed to the secretary of transport minister”, but PWD minister Satyendar Jain has also attended two related meetings over the issue. Baijal said all these facts were also mentioned in his previous letter to Kejriwal.

In response, Kejriwal wrote back to Baijal the next day assuring his complete cooperation for resolution of the issue but informed that he and his ministers had no knowledge of the entire matter.

“The statement about the elected government being kept in dark does not appear to be borne out as per facts..,” a statement from the L-G office said.

“As such, the chief secretary convened a meeting on May 3, 2017 wherein five pilot corridors were identified and an action plan was laid out for each of these. A copy of the minutes of this meeting too was endorsed to the secretary to minister (transport),” it added.

Subsequently, an official said, the L-G chaired another meeting on May 16, focusing especially on just two pilot corridors.

“The minister (UD/PWD) not only attended the meeting but also gave useful suggestions. A copy of minutes of this meeting was again endorsed to his secretary..,” the statement said.

Officials said it is in this background that the L-G expressed ‘surprise’ that the chief minister and his ministers did not have any knowledge of the issue.

HTC