Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal on Saturday rubbished the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s claim that the implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, was pending with his office, saying that the file had not reached him yet.
In a statement on Saturday, the Lieutenant-Governor’s office denied a statement by Delhi Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam that the file regarding the notification of rules for implementation of the RPwD Act was with the L-G’s Secretariat. On Friday, Mr. Gautam had said that after the Law Department gave its opinion that since the “State government” referred to the L-G in the earlier RPwD Act, 1995, the elected government had sought Mr. Baijal’s approval for notifying the rules under the new RPwD Act. Mr. Gautam said the file was sent to the L-G after the Law Department gave its opinion on September 14. This, however, was denied by the L-G. “The Social Welfare Department has confirmed that the file is still under process and has not been submitted to the L-G Secretariat,” the Raj Niwas statement read.
Definition row
At the heart of the issue is the disagreement over the definition of “government” in legislations.
While the AAP government has tried changing it to refer to the elected government, the Centre has rejected it returning Bills passed by the Delhi Assembly.
The Law Department said that since “State government” was not defined, there was a need for a “specific delegation of powers” to formulate rules under it since Delhi is a Union Territory. In the earlier RPwD Act, the administrator was empowered to formulate rules.
