New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday accused the Centre of starting a process to declare “null and void” all Delhi government’s decisions taken in the last one-and-a-half-year through the Lt Governor, claiming the move will only lead to “chaos”.
Referring to the August 4 High Court order that stamped the primacy of Lt Governor, the Delhi Chief Minister said the HC order cannot have retrospective effect, it can only have prospective effect instead. His accusation came days after Lt Governor Najeeb Jung quashed the AAP government’s notification on increasing circle rates of agricultural land and dissolved the Delhi Waqf Board besides scrapping the appointment of DERC chairman. “LG has scrapped the appointment of Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) chairman saying his prior approval was not sought. Will all the DERC’s decisions taken in the last one-and-a-half-year be declared null and void? “He also quashed the government’s decision to increase circle rates for agricultural land. Citing that LG’s prior nod was not taken, whether those farmers who sold their land would have to return money to purchaser now?” he asked.
Kejriwal said whether 8,000 new classrooms which were built by his government would be demolished as no prior approval was taken. “Process is going on to declare null and void all our decisions taken in the last one-and-a-half year which is a very unfortunate. I request the Centre not to make governance in Delhi a laughing stock as it is very serious business and it will only lead to chaos.”
Asserting that after the HC order, the AAP government was sending all files to Lt Governor for his prior approval he said, we would request Jung to give his ex-post facto approval on those files which were not sent for his prior approval. Similarly, the LG has stopped salaries of government’s lawyers as his prior approval was not sought.
“In the past, ex-post facto approval of LG has been given to the government’s various decisions. How could we turn the clock back? The High Court order cannot have retrospective effect, instead it can only have prospective effect,” the Delhi CM said while addressing a press conference at his official residence.
On the issue of transfer and posting of bureaucrats, he said that Delhi government should have a say in transfer and posting of officers working with it. Speaking on dissolution of Delhi Waqf Board by Jung, Kejriwal said the body appointed by the government has been dissolved as its chairman Amanatullah Khan was allegedly exposing scam in the Board.