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Restrain your ministers, Delhi LG tells Kejriwal after Sisodia accuses him of 'favouring' BJP

Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena was reacting to a letter by the deputy chief minister wherein he accused the LG of 'bulldozing the law' to favour the BJP in connection.

PTI

Updated Jun 28, 2022, 21:10 IST

Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena (File Photo)

Photo : ANI

New Delhi: In a sign of brewing tussle, Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena on Tuesday wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal refuting his deputy Manish Sisodia’s charge of favouring the BJP and urged him to restrain his ministers from making “misleading” assertions.

Saxena was reacting to a letter by the deputy chief minister wherein he accused the LG of “bulldozing the law” to favour the BJP in connection with allowing the Anti Corruption Branch to probe the alleged irregularities in the construction of seven temporary hospitals during the Covid pandemic.

“It is both sad and surprising to note that vide the above letter, the deputy chief minister has made factually and legally incorrect statements on the subject matter while unnecessarily politicising a desirable administrative action,” Saxena wrote in the letter to Kejriwal.

He reminded the chief minister of their agreement over “zero tolerance” against corruption, which was reached during their meetings every Friday, and sought his cooperation in doing so.

“In the interest of good governance, I would further urge you to advise your ministers to refrain from such unproductive and poorly evidenced assertions, which are both misleading and obstructive in nature,” he wrote.

Saxena also explained the legal position of his authority vis-a-vis the charges made against him by Sisodia. “This judgement still holds the field as the civil appeal filed by the elected government on this issue is yet to be heard by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court,” Saxena pointed out.

The permission for conducting an enquiry into the complaint of corruption against officials of PWD has been granted after careful examination and strictly in accordance with the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and the provisions of law as settled by the courts, he stated.

Sisodia had asked in his letter under whose “pressure” Saxena had approved an investigation by the ACB over a year-old complaint when it was rejected by his predecessor Anil Baijal as “frivolous and baseless”.

The Delhi High Court in its judgement on August 4, 2016, has held that according to the constitutional scheme of governance of Delhi, the “services” fall outside the purview of the Legislative Assembly of Delhi, he said.

A complaint over alleged irregularities in the construction of temporary hospitals by the Public Works Department (PWD) was lodged by BJP MP Manoj Tiwari.

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