Last Updated: February 16, 2023, 00:00 IST
Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena. (Image: Twitter/File)
He also requested the LG to get the victims reinstated at locations from where they have been uprooted without any further delay
A day after Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena directed authorities to stop an anti-encroachment drive citing “anomalies” in land demarcation by the AAP government, party MLA Somnath Bharti on Wednesday accused him of “indulging in politics” and trying to “malign” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s image.
On the fifth day of the drive on Tuesday, Saxena directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to stop demolitions in Mehrauli and Ladha Sarai villages till further instructions. In a letter to the Lt Governor (LG), Bharti, who is a member of the DDA, criticised him for issuing a statement claiming that flawed land demarcations was due to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
He also requested the LG to get the victims reinstated at locations from where they have been uprooted without any further delay.
The Raj Niwas on Tuesday had said: “The LG directed the Vice Chairman, DDA, and the local administration to immediately stop the demolition drive and assured the residents that their grievances would be looked into and the anomalies, as pointed out by them, would be examined”.
The AAP MLA said that in “reality the demarcation which became the basis of the demolition order was neither shared with the office of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal nor with the office of Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot”.
“Any direction given on an issue being/to be dealt by the Revenue Office issued by Chief Minister of Delhi and/or his cabinet cannot be disrespected by the executives and any deviation from this will amount to dereliction of duty and contempt of Supreme Court of India,” Bharti said in his letter.
“This I am saying so because in spite of a categorical order, issued by none less than Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot, cancelling the demarcation report and directing the DM South to undertake the fresh demarcation after inviting suggestions/objections from the people residing on these lands was not given any heed to and rather Minister had to issue another letter demanding explanation from DM South on inaction on his order,” he said.
Bharti said he requests Saxena to investigate this “serious breach of transaction of business rules, Govt. of NCT of Delhi Act, Constitution of India and various judgments of Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and punish the officials guilty of this severe dereliction”.
On the LG’s statement issued on Tuesday, the AAP leader said that “such an attempt was surely political from your office with the sole intent to malign the clean image of Arvind Kejriwal ji and Aam Aadmi Party government”.
He thanked the LG for directing the DDA to stop the demolition in Mehrauli and Ladha areas, till further instructions.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)