Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena has recalled files related to several pending infrastructure projects citing "inaction" on the part of the city government, officials said on Sunday.
They alleged that despite the recommendations of a committee to remove "unauthorised religious structures" that have held up several key infrastructure projects, the Delhi government's home department, headed by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, has kept 78 such proposals from various agencies pending since May last year.
Sisodia accused Saxena of "playing politics" over the matter and stressed that decisions over making any alteration to religious structures cannot be taken in haste.
The officials said invoking his powers under rule 19(5) of the Transaction of Business of the GNCTD Rules (ToBR), 1993, the LG has ordered to recall all files pending for more than a month at the ministers' level from the home department.
Rule 19(5) of the ToBR empowers the LG to recall files pending inordinately with ministers or the chief minister in public interest. The rule forces the government to send the files to the LG, irrespective of whether those have been approved or not, the officials explained.
The projects that have been held up include the decongestion of critical traffic corridors, such as the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road, the Mehrauli-Badarpur road, Dhaula Kuan-RTR Marg, Ring Road at various sites, Loni Road and the Vijay Nagar-Burari stretch, completion of works on the Delhi stretch of the Delhi-Saharanpur Expressway and construction of housing projects for government employees.
"These files have been inexplicably pending for years together due to inaction on the part of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, although all statutory requisite formalities, procedures and permissions have been put in place as regards the removal of unauthorised religious structures erected by land-grabbers after 2009, when the Supreme Court barred any further occupation by such structures and ordered for their removal," an official said.
A committee was formed in 2014 following the apex court judgment to consider and recommend the removal of such unauthorised religious structures upon the receipt of a request from the land-owning agency concerned.
The committee is headed by the Delhi home secretary and comprises representatives from the city police and land-owning agencies.
The LG and the AAP dispensation have been at loggerheads over various issues, including sending government school teachers to Finland for training.
According to officials, the decongestion of 77 traffic corridors, which is pending since 2017 due to the "inaction" of the Delhi government, is extremely critical for a smooth traffic flow and the mitigation of air pollution in the capital. At the same time, the Delhi-Saharanpur Expressway, which is a part of the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway, is a time-bound project being monitored at the level of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and has been pending since 2018, they said.
The proposals for removal of unauthorised religious structures pertain to the construction of the Delhi-Saharanpur Expressway, government residential flats under General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) at seven locations pending since 2018 and the decongestion of the 77 corridors.
The officials said the home department had written to Sisodia in December, requesting him to approve and forward these cases to the LG, but the files are still pending.
They noted that the construction of the government residential flats under GPRA and the decongestion of the 77 corridors, apart from several other projects of national significance, are held up since 2017 by the AAP government due to the non-granting of permission for translocation of trees.
Even in December, Saxena had recalled 11 files from the city government that were pending with Minister of Environment and Forest Gopal Rai. However, once the LG Secretariat invoked rule 19(5) of the ToBR to recall these files, the minister and the chief minister duly approved and signed the files within days and sent those to the LG for approval. Upon receiving the files, the LG immediately approved those and the work on these projects has started, the officials said.
According to a note sent to the LG by the Delhi home department, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs had submitted a proposal for the removal of 53 unauthorised religious structures for the construction of the residential flats under GPRA. Of the 53 structures, the religious committee recommended the removal of 51.
Similarly, the committee had received proposals for the removal of 20 unauthorised religious structures from the 77 corridors and 15 were recommended for removal. The committee also recommended the removal of nine of the 23 unauthorised religious structures that were creating hurdles in the construction of the six-lane Delhi-Saharanpur Expressway.
"The LG has claimed that the said files have been held up by my department. It is deeply unfortunate that the LG is choosing to play politics over such a sensitive matter. The matter in question concerns giving clearance for demolition of several religious structures, including many big temples that have existed for decades in the city," Sisodia said in a statement.
Any decision over making any alteration to such structures cannot be taken in haste, let alone allowing those to be demolished, he added.
