The Hindu : New Delhi News : Chief Minister locks horns with L-G

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 25, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Chief Minister locks horns with L-G

Sujay Mehdudia

B.L. Joshi takes strong note of complaints over criteria of selecting MLAs for `foreign junkets'

NEW DELHI: The ongoing cold war between the Delhi Government and Raj Nivas seems to have entered a new phase with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit locking horns with Lieutenant-Governor B.L. Joshi over the issue of nominating legislators for "foreign junkets", study tours and being part of any official delegation travelling abroad.

Earlier, a large number of Congress MLAs had protested in writing to the Lieutenant-Governor stating that no criteria were applied while picking legislators for the week-long junket to Melbourne and some sort of formula should be evolved so that there was no discrimination while selecting legislators for such tours along with the official delegation. Following the protest, Mr. Joshi had put on hold files of some MLAs who were to have left for Melbourne to join the Chief Minister during the Commonwealth Games.

This round of confrontation comes close on the heels of another "disagreement" between Raj Nivas and the Delhi Government on withdrawing a 1963 notification of the Union Home Ministry exempting Lal Dora and Extended Abadi areas from the application of building by-laws. While the Delhi Government had been pressing for withdrawal of this notification, Mr. Joshi had returned it twice suggesting that the Government reconsider its decision in public interest.

As for the latest showdown, sources say Mr. Joshi wrote a strong note stating that he had received representations from certain MLAs and therefore a new non-discriminatory formula should be evolved for selection of legislators. Mr. Joshi had suggested that in order to avoid any discrimination the Delhi Government should route all requests for selection of MLAs through the Delhi Assembly Speaker, Chaudhary Prem Singh. He had suggested that Mr. Singh would undertake the final selection of names in future. However, the Delhi Government was not amused and took a "serious note" of the note written by the Lieutenant-Governor, terming it as infringement on the rights of the State Government.

It is learnt that the Chief Minister wrote back to the Lieutenant-Governor stating that the "prerogative" to nominate MLAs for such tours or official delegations rested with the elected Government and Raj Nivas or the Assembly Speaker had little or no role to play. It further stated that the official delegations going abroad were not part of the Assembly or any House Committee and therefore there was no need for the Speaker to nominate MLAs and the matter should at best be left to the discretion of the Delhi Government.

It is learnt that Raj Nivas is getting the whole matter examined.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP leaders, Jagdish Mukhi and Harsh Vardhan, who are accompanying the jumbo-sized official delegation to Melbourne have come under flak for accepting the State Government's offer at a time when Delhi was facing problems of demolitions, sealing of properties, water and power shortage from party members.

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