Committee on Petitions and payment strategies from the Govt of LG

While Aam Aadmi Party Delhi Govt is further seeking SC intervention in the implementation of its 4th July judgement, the capital has gained significant developments in the three year old power tussle that started during the first 49 days of AAP govt (when ACB registered FIR against RIL Chief Mukesh Ambani and two other Ministers). While officers related to the service department refused to follow SC judgement, Delhi food department referred the file related to doorstep delivery of ration to law department. Meanwhile the central government also decided to file a petition to review the 4th July judgement in SC. It seems as if LG/Central Govt don't want to lose control over the services even when HC slammed LG for not executing projects related to garbage management in Delhi and Centre controlled services sees no improvements or crackdown in corruption activities. Any idea proposed by Delhi Govt with the possibility of reducing corruption activities is either rejected, delayed or not implemented by the service department. As every authority in Delhi is looking at HC/SC for conflict resolution, it makes me feel that the judgement will not be delivered in this term like the previous case which took 2 years and all the visionary projects of Delhi Govt were stalled. 

Two Recent Developments in the News: Recently two articles surfaced which were talked about in the social media. 1) Delhi HC directs Delhi Chief Secretary (CS) Anshu Prakash to appear before assembly panel or face contempt action 2) Payment to lawyers, to appear for Delhi Govt in SC and HC, is stalled. You may not find any direct connection between the two headlines but both are connected in terms of "payments to lawyers". In the first case payment was approved and in the second it was stopped. Citing RTI reply from Dec 2017, AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj briefed a press conference and provided the following information: 

Petition Committee and Unclean Drainage Systems: Unclean drainage system is a big issue in Delhi which causes flooding during monsoon season. Flooding leads to other problems related to traffic and health. Every city council promises to clean the drainage system before monsoon. However only some of them keep their promises and the rest forge the data. Councils even make false claims that the drainage system is clean, so floods won't occur. But fate becomes a reality with the first rain. Areas get flooded due to unclean drainage systems. Since the drains are reported cleaned in the beginning, there are only two possibilities: either drainage system is not efficient or council did not clean the drains properly. In order to find a suitable reason, Delhi assembly Petition Committee (PC) conducted an enquiry in 2017 with PC committee members, 2017 PWD Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar, PWD Engineers and engineers from the local municipality where enquiry was being conducted. Around 100 different drainage systems were enquired based on the cleanliness report available with PWD and MCD. During the enquiry, drainage systems were found unclean while reports from PWD and MCD marked them clean. In the report submitted by PWD and MCD, both the agencies lied to PC,  Delhi assembly and Delhi HC. 

Petition Committee Recommendations: PC discovered huge corruption in the cleanliness of drainage systems. Uncleaned systems were marked as clean on papers and payment to contractor was released. After initial two visits, PWD CS refused to accompany the committee team which was conducting the enquiry. Photographs of unclean drainage system taken during the enquiry were shown to each officer (in a group as well as individually) of PWD and MCD departments. Committee also asked their opinion about the cleanliness which they agreed on that the drainage system is not clean. When individual officers were asked by PC to take action against responsible officers, each officer said in written that they are satisfied with the cleanliness and won't take any action against any officer. After that, PC submitted its report to Delhi assembly which was forwarded to Delhi Govt upon agreement in July 2017. Few recommendation made in the report were:

1. Delhi CS (MM Kutty in 2017) to make sure that the directions mentioned in the report regarding cleanliness of drainage system are implemented on ground 
2. Delhi CS to enquire reasons behind the assertions on paper that the drainage system is clean 
3. Delhi CS to enquire about responsible person involved in corruption 
4. Delhi CS should place a foolproof mechanism to verify each and every contract awarded and executed 
5. Delhi CS should put modern and dynamic system to replace current obsolete mechanism of drainage and related activities 
6. A verification mechanism with the help of local residents should also be established 
7. Delhi CS should present the report in a month in Delhi Assembly  

RTI and Payment to Lawyers: After the instructions made in the report, Delhi CS did not perform their duties or submitted a report to Delhi assembly, instead they went to HC. In the HC, CS misrepresented the facts and as a result HC decided to make a stay on the report. In the process, an entire year got wasted and both Delhi CS and PWD CS did not complete any work. RTI reports revealed that LG office approved the Delhi and PWD CS's request to approach HC. Lawyers hired for the court proceedings were paid by Delhi Govt (LG as administrative head of Delhi). As such, the lawyers who fought to hide corruption in MCD and PWD departments were paid by Delhi Govt and they ultimately fought against Delhi Govt and Delhi assembly itself. In contrast, the lawyers who fought for Delhi Assembly and petition committees for 2 years are denied payment. Around 12 lawyers fought for Delhi Assembly in HC and SC to restore the power in Delhi assembly so that the responsible officers involved in corruption could be prosecuted and Delhi drainage system could be properly cleaned. 

 

Current Delhi CS (Anshu Prakash) also approached HC seeking exemption to report to petition committees. These committees exist to count the accountability of officers involved in various projects. Later, HC directed Delhi CS to appear before PC. In case of Anshu Prakash, details of approval to approach SC and payment to the lawyers are not available as yet. Saurabh Bhardwaj also stated that RTI queries are not being answered after Dec 2017 and around 35-40 RTI applications are pending in different departments. 

RTI Response (English, page 1) to the questions related to LG nod on CS and PWD Sec request to approach High Court and approve payment to highered lawyers 

RTI Response (English, page 2) to the questions related to LG nod on CS and PWD Sec request to approach High Court and approve payment to highered lawyers 

RTI Response (Hindi, page 1) to the questions related to LG nod on CS and PWD Sec request to approach High Court and approve payment to highered lawyers 

RTI Response (Hindi, page 2) to the questions related to LG nod on CS and PWD Sec request to approach High Court and approve payment to highered lawyers 

Watch full press conference of MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj.

Read more: How it happened? Timeline of power tussle in Delhi 

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