Surprised that CM said he was not informed of traffic task force: LG

NEW DELHI: A fresh controversy emerged between the Raj Niwas and Chief Minister’s office over the problem of traffic bottlenecks across the national Capital, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s apparent lack of awareness about the measures taken by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s office to resolve the issue.

Writing to the Chief Minister, the LG expressed his surprise over the former’s perception that the Delhi government was not made aware of the task force created to resolve traffic bottlenecks.

The LG’S office said that it informed the Chief Minister about details of meetings attended by the minister of Public Works and Urban Development department and information received from the ministers’ offices regarding the issue of traffic bottlenecks.

The LG’S response follows media reports suggesting that Kejriwal had sought information on traffic bottlenecks from the Chief Secretary by August 15. After this, the LG had suo motu informed the CM on July 5 about the steps taken so far, along with the list of 28 category A priority corridors.

In his response on July 6, Kejriwal assured the LG his complete cooperation for resolution of the issue, but informed that he and his ministers had no knowledge of the entire matter.

In his letter to the CM, the LG further informed that the minutes of the very first meeting he chaired to review the submissions of the six task forces on March28 were endorsed to the secretary to Transport minister.

In that meeting, it was decided to identify four or five pilot corridors for immediate action. As such, the Chief Secretary convened a meeting on May3, wherein five pilot corridors were identified and an action plan was laid out for each of these.

Subsequently, the LG chaired another meeting on May 16, focusing on just two pilot corridors – Corridor No. 1 Aurobindo Marg (Aurobindo Marg to Andheria More) and Corridor No. 3 Savitri Flyover (Chirag Delhi Crossing to Savitri Flyover).

The PWD minister not only attended this meeting but also gave useful suggestions, the letter said.