Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena has urged Delhi Chief Minister Atishi to convene a special session of the Delhi Assembly to table 14 pending reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
In a letter to the Chief Minister, the LG emphasized the constitutional mandate to present these reports promptly before the Legislature, in accordance with Section 48 of the GNCTD Act, 1991.
Out of the 14 reports, 11 pertain to the tenure of former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and cover critical issues such as the Delhi Transport Corporation, public health, mohalla clinics, liquor duty, pollution, state finances, and other undertakings.
The LG stated that these reports are crucial for ensuring transparency and accountability in governance. Delays in their presentation, he added, amount to a failure to fulfill the government’s constitutional obligations.
Although the Delhi government recently sent the reports to the LG’s office, it has not announced a date for the Assembly session to table them. Notably, one of the reports has reportedly been pending for 497 days.
The BJP, which had filed a case in the High Court regarding the delayed submission, claimed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government acted only under the pressure of a potential adverse court ruling.
According to the LG’s office, the government submitted 12 reports on December 11, just a day before the court hearing, at 3:30 PM, and sent the remaining two reports on December 12 at 7:50 PM, after the hearing had already concluded.
The LG’s office criticized the government’s actions, describing the last-minute submission as a “face-saving” move. “It took the fear of an adverse court order for the AAP government to hurriedly forward the long-pending reports to the LG for approval,” read a statement from the LG Secretariat.
The BJP has accused the AAP government of deliberately withholding the reports to avoid scrutiny. Meanwhile, the LG highlighted the importance of placing the CAG reports before the Assembly without further delay to uphold transparency and accountability in governance.
The Delhi government has yet to declare a timeline for the special Assembly session to fulfill this constitutional requirement.
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