LG’S Jal Board meeting sparks 1st tussle with govt

HT Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday accused lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena of “overstepping his jurisdiction” by holding meetings with certain officials, triggering the first confrontation between the newly appointed constitutional functionary and the elected government.

The backlash was prompted by Saxena holding a meeting with Delhi Jal Board (DJB) officials earlier this week, amid a water crisis caused by a drop in the water level of the Yamuna.

“I appeal to the LG to not try to disrupt Delhi’s constitutional system, and let the Kejriwal government run the departments which fall under its purview. The Constitution clearly states that land, law and order, Delhi Police, and now the municipal corporation of Delhi (MCD) falls under the jurisdiction of the LG, who is the Centre’s representative. On the other hand, Delhi’s elected government has jurisdiction over departments including electricity, water, education, health, and revenue, as confirmed by the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench,” said AAP senior leader and MLA Atishi.

Atishi, the legislator from Kalkaji, said the new LG was “coercing” the Delhi government’s officers to work on his directions. The LG, she added, convened a meeting with DJB officials on Monday.

The LG office did not respond to requests for a comment.

Saxena took over the post on May 26, and met chief minister Arvind Kejriwal the following day. After the meeting, the CM said the discussions covered several issues and the two sides “decided to work together for the betterment of the people of Delhi”.

Wednesday’s developments suggest the relationship is likely to be continued to be fraught – the LG and the Delhi government have squared off on several issues, with the former often overruling decisions taken by the Kejriwal administration in what has been seen as a proxy for battle between the AAP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre.

“Cleanliness and poor waste management is a predominant issue in Delhi – no locality is properly cleaned due to MCD’S incompetence over the past 15 years. It is my humble request to LG to focus on improving Delhi’s law and order situation, women’s safety issues, sanitation, and disposal of landfills. The LG must solve these problems if he wants to help the people of Delhi,” Atishi said.

The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the AAP leaders took up the issue to divert people’s attention from Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain’s money laundering case. “The matter of tainted minister Jain is foremost before the people of Delhi and the country, but to divert public attention from it, the AAP is trying to make controversy over a meeting of DJB called by the LG. These issues are being raised to sideline the minister’s corruption. People of Delhi will teach AAP a lesson soon and the first will be in the upcoming bypolls of Rajendra Nagar,” said Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor.

The row itself is rooted in a water crisis in the Capital. Over the last three weeks, supplies have been constrained after the Yamuna receded to a critically low level of around 668 feet against a normal of 674.5ft.

As a result, the production of potable water fell from a targeted peak summer production of 998MGD to 922 MGD on May 22.

I appeal to the LG to not try to disrupt Delhi’s constitutional system. Senior AAP leader