‘Governance in capital has come to a standstill’

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta on Tuesday said that governance in Delhi has come to a standstill due to inaction and lethargy of its top leadership.

Mr Gupta claimed that neither the chief minister has attended Secretariat nor there has been a weekly cabinet meeting for the past one-and-half-months.

According to Mr Gupta, neither the officers visited chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residents nor he made any visit to secretariat. “With Mr Kejriwal gone into hibernation, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia gone for a 10-day ‘vipassna course’, PWD minister Satyender Jain entangled in Directorate of Enforcement and Income Tax, there is political and administrative vacuum. At present, the relations and communication between the bureaucracy and political bosses are in doldrums,” said Mr Gupta.

He pointed out that the last Cabinet meeting was held on March 22 and since then no Cabinet meeting has been held and the political leadership has proved to be incapable of giving direction to the administration.

Governance has taken a back seat following the alleged attack on chief secretary Anshu Prakash. The gap between political leadership and bureaucracy is increasing day by day. The government has not taken any decision with regard to development works or announced any new scheme,” Mr Gupta added.

He mentioned that even the ongoing projects such as Signature Bridge have gone into limbo. “As many as 31 operation theatres in government hospitals are lying closed for long. There is acute shortage of potable water in many areas. , which were allegedly imported by gross over-valuation/over-invoicing thereby siphoning off the funds of various PSBs".