Central panel sought more power for Kejri

DDA UNDER FIRE Submitted in October last year, the report called for chief minister to be given more say in running Delhi

NEW DELHI: As lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung fights a bitter battle with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for administrative control of Delhi, the Centre — the LG’s employer — is sitting on a panel report, which, if implemented, would give more powers to the CM.

Ironically, the panel, appointed by the Modi government and headed by former home secretary Madhukar Gupta, submitted its report to the union urban development ministry in October 2015 but the document is yet to be made public.

“The report is under examination,” a ministry spokesperson said to a query about secrecy over the panel’s recommendations.

HT accessed the report that calls for the state government to be given greater control over land, a larger representation in the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) board and more powers to plan the city’s transport needs. It also favours a state-government run housing board that will assess the requirement and build houses for different sections, a job entrusted to the DDA.

Holding the authority responsible for the city’s urban mess, the report calls for the DDA to be stripped of its role of land and property management and limit it to that of a “central planning authority” and a “facilitator”.

The report also recommends that the land lying unused with the DDA be transferred to Delhi

Set up a unified transport authority to give city government bigger say in planning transport needs. government agencies.

Mandated to “revisit and redraft” the Delhi Development Act, 1957, the five-member committee, set up in February 2015, favours curtailing the role of DDA, the primary land owner and sole developer of the city that reports to the Union government.

The city government has to seek the urban development ministry’s clearance in all landrelated matters.

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