The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday released a ‘report card’ on Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal’s performance on the eve of his appointment to the post last year.
Released at the party’s headquarters here, AAP Delhi chief spokesperson and Greater Kailash MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj said the report was based on statistics gathered in relation to Mr. Baijal’s decisions pertaining to issues of land, law and order, and services which constitutionally fall under his purview.
“The L-G has made himself available only for photo opportunities since assuming office,” Mr. Bhardwaj alleged, adding that the Delhi L-G’s Office seemed to be “the only one of its kind in the world to enjoy unbridled power but zero accountability”.
“He just calls meeting with government officials and makes visits where he gives directions to remove visible garbage even as he stalls files pertaining to the Delhi government’s policies aimed at public service,” the AAP leader said.
Throughout the year, the AAP alleged that despite the Delhi Police’s lacklustre bid at curbing crimes against women in addition to heinous crimes in the city it remained atop a “list of favourites of the L-G”.
This, Mr. Bhardwaj said, was despite the force’s inability to fill over 14,000 vacancies as per a Delhi High Court directive, which neither Mr. Baijal nor the Centre “seemed to be serious about”.
‘Not giving govt. land’
On the issue of land, the party alleged that the L-G, who was the functional head of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), has not “conceded even an inch of land” for Delhi government schemes such as Mohalla Clinics, space for school buildings or the construction of affordable housing for the poor.
“Services also fall under his purview but what is he doing about it,” Mr. Bhardwaj asked.
Alleging that the L-G was made in charge of service matters in Delhi in “one stroke through a single order”, the MLA alleged that Mr. Baijal was not serious about manpower gaps in the government despite the matter having been brought to his attention by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
“There are 37,000 vacancies in the government that the CM had written to him about filling, but nothing has been done so far,” Mr. Bhardwaj said.
The L-G, the AAP claimed, was only exercising his power to direct Delhi government officials and bureaucrats to “hide files from the elected government” instead.
