Lt Governor V K Saxena has reportedly refused to give “timely appointment” to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying that he is “very busy and cannot meet before Friday.
Sources in the Aam Party Party said that the L-G had on Monday invited Kejriwal for a discussion over existing conflict over governance powers. “The CM had immediately written back accepting the invite and sought an appointment on Tuesday. However, a timely appointment was refused and Saxena’s office stated that the L-G does not have time to meet the CM before Friday 4 PM,” a source said.
In a letter to Kejriwal, Saxena asked the chief minister to hold regular meetings with him for “conflict-free” governance of the national capital in the interest of its residents. The LG’s office and the AAP government in Delhi have often found themselves at loggerheads over various issues, including the now-scrapped excise policy.
Kejriwal, in his recent letters to Saxena, questioned the nomination of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) presiding officer and aldermen as well as members of the Haj committee, saying if LG as “administrator” meant ignoring the elected government in Delhi.
In his letter, Saxena said the provisions governing administration in Delhi “… are amply clear for any practitioner of statecraft, lawyer and scholar as indeed a common citizen. I would like to invite you for a meeting where we could discuss issues threadbare”.
He said the provisions governing administration in Delhi emanate out of serious deliberations in Constituent Assembly, State Reorganisation Commission and Parliament. They have also been clearly interpreted by the Supreme Court on several occasions, he added.
The chief minister further stated that Sec 21(3) of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi defines Govt as “LG”, seeking clarification from Saxena whether he will be running the Delhi government directly bypassing the elected government on all transferred subjects.
“If that position is taken, then the Prime Minister of India and all Chief Ministers will become irrelevant because in all the laws and Constitution, the words used are President/Governors and not Prime Minister/Chief Minister.”
Citing various letters sent by the chief minister to him over the past few days, Saxena appreciated Kejriwal for “having started taking governance in the city seriously”.
The LG said the chief minister used to meet him regularly till October 2022 but later he expressed his inability to do so due to his preoccupation with assembly and municipal polls.
Since the polls are over, the meetings should be resumed for “deliberative and conflict-free” governance of the city in the interest of the people, Saxena said. The Chief Minister’s Office may fix any mutually convenient date for a meeting, he said.
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