A day after refusing summons, Delhi chief secy attends assembly panel meeting

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[google-translator]

A day after refusing to appear before the petitions committee of the Delhi assembly and questioning its authority to summon him, Delhi chief secretary Naresh Kumar appeared before the panel on Thursday after the House panel sent a fresh letter to the top government official saying he had been called to discuss the recurring problem of waterlogging in the city and attached 20 newspaper clippings with the letter.

After the meeting, the petitions committee said in a statement that it has decided to inspect drains in the city from August 2, to check the veracity of claims by officials that they were desilted or cleaned ahead of the monsoon. Besides the chief secretary, MCD commissioner, NDMC chairman and principal secretary (PWD) also attended the meeting, according to officials aware of the matter.

“It was discussed and agreed before the committee that all the executive engineers of various departments will submit a signed report of status of desilting of drains in their respective jurisdictions. This report will be consolidated by the HoDs and will be submitted before the committee on August 1, 2022. It was also agreed that the department will create and publish a duty roster whereby senior officials will verify the desilting status of various drains in their jurisdictions. The chief secretary also agreed that physical verification by senior officers can make a difference in the services provided by the departments and bring much needed accountability and transparency. The committee also decided that from August 2, its members along with senior-most officers will randomly visit sites to verify the desilting claims of the departments,” the petitions committee said in a statement after the meeting.

The chief secretary said that the proceedings of the assembly committee are confidential in nature and declined to comment. He also did not respond to queries as to why he went to attend the meeting after the refused to do so a day earlier.

The petitions committee had sent a notice to the chief secretary on July 14, asking him to attend a sitting on July 21 to discuss the action taken report dated June 30, 2017, related to desilting of drains in the capital.

In his response to the notice on July 20, the chief secretary requested that the notice for sitting may be withdrawn because it is outside the jurisdiction of the assembly panel. He cited the GNCTD (Amendment) Act, 2021, and said according to the law “issues noted in the report of June 2017 would amount to consideration of the matters of day to day administration of the capital or conducting inquiries in relation to the administrative decisions, which is not permitted now”.

In a report on June 30, 2017, the petitions committee had recommended action against officials for not carrying out desilting while contractors were paid and also ordered detailed investigation into the false claims that 95% drains had been cleaned, said AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj, then chairman and now a member of the panel. “The committee was not satisfied with the reply of the then chief secretary Kutty. Around a month later, Kutty moved the high court but his writ petition was disposed of after he was transferred out of the Delhi government,” he said.

On Thursday, the House panel wrote back to Kumar, saying that the committee was “pained by the misery of Delhi residents caused due to waterlogging”. Twenty newspaper clippings of waterlogging in Delhi were also attached with the letter.

The letter said,“…the committee expects that government agencies under your supervision may assist the committee in providing relief to the people. The committee welcomes you to raise your concerns (regarding jurisdiction issues) before the committee and you will be given all the opportunities to raise it and the members will consider the same and therefore request you attend the sitting of the committee scheduled on July 21.”

“The committee expected the top and worthy officer of GNCTD would be more than forthcoming to assist the committee in this emergency situation,” the letter said.

“In 2017 the committee had recommended that a thorough investigation is needed to fix the accountability of erring officials because crores of rupees of taxpayers money were being spent on tenders for desilting while the on-ground work was dismal. It is a parliamentary practice that the government submits action taken reports on the Assembly Committee reports adopted by the house. The Committee had summoned the chief secretary to submit the action taken report of the government on the recommendations of Petitions Committee in 2017,” said the petition committee.


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