New Delhi: Lieutenant governor VK Saxena has written to chief minister Atishi, asking for the convening of a special sitting of Delhi Assembly to allow the tabling of the pending CAG reports in the House. Saxena said that the session should be convened without delay to ensure adherence to the constitutional mandate.
Last week, the LG approved the 14 pending reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General for tabling in the legislative body. Officials said that Delhi govt sent 12 of the CAG reports to the LG’s office on Nov 11 and two others in the evening of Nov 12 evening. In between these dates, Delhi High Court had heard a case filed by Vijender Gupta, leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, during which Delhi govt assured all CAG reports would be tabled in the assembly and said the session that ended on Dec 4 was not the House’s last.
The 14 reports include performance audits on the regulation and supply of liquor in Delhi, on the prevention and mitigation of vehicular air pollution in Delhi and on the functioning of Delhi Transport Corporation. There are reports also on the public health infrastructure and management of health services, apart from revenue, expenditure and financial audits of the state govt, pertaining to the period when Arvind Kejriwal was CM.
“These have been pending for as long as a year and a half in many instances,” said a statement from LG’s House on Monday. LG has dealt with every report in a separate file. “These reports are the touchstone of transparency in governance. Adherence to the constitutional mandate of placing such reports on the table of the legislature from time to time expeditiously is an essential ingredient of a functional democracy to ensure full disclosure and to seek guidance of the apex legislative body for taking course corrections where necessary,” it said.
The LG’s statement added, “These reports were received by the govt from CAG on different dates in the past. My secretariat also forwarded the communication received from CAG on these reports to the finance department on various dates for necessary action. Despite my communications to the then chief minister on Feb 22, 2024, and the incumbent chief minister on Nov 29, 2024, no action was taken by either of the chief ministers.”
The statement noted that a writ petition on the matter, namely Vijender Gupta vs GNCTD, was pending in the high court. The petition had sought court directions to Delhi govt to lay the CAG reports before the legislative assembly.
“By not laying the CAG reports promptly before the legislative assembly, govt has failed to discharge its constitutional obligation and has deprived the members of the Legislative Assembly from discharging their core duty of exercising legislative control over the executive,” the statement said.
No immediate reaction was available from Delhi govt.