Responding to Centre's objection over the nomination of non-bureaucratic members to the DMRC board of directors, the AAP government said on Thursday that it cannot be dictated terms as it is an equal partner in the venture.
Delhi's Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot claimed that the rule cited while objecting to nominations of non-bureaucrats by the Delhi government, was misunderstood by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.
On Wednesday, the ministry had objected to the nomination of AAP leaders Raghav Chadha and Atishi and two others to the DMRC board of directors and asked the Delhi government to withdraw its non-bureaucrat nominees citing official guidelines.
Gahlot, in his reply to the ministry, said the Delhi government and the Centre have a 50-50 per cent partnership in the DMRC.
"Therefore, one partner has no right to suggest/dictate the other partner who should be nominated. The Delhi government has made nominations taking into account their background and after being convinced that they will be able to protect the interests of the people of the city as well as the AAP dispensation," he said.
In a letter to Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Dev, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Additional Secretary K Sanjay Murthy had cited Department of Public Enterprises(DPE) guidelines according to which officials handling the issue should be appointed as government nominee directors.
He said a convention has been established for all metro rail companies that officials closely involved with the implementation of metro rail projects are nominated by the Centre and respective state governments on the board of metro companies.
More From This Section
Gahlot said Murthy's letter relied upon the guidelines issued by the Department of Public Enterprises. He said the guidelines which forms the basis of the letter are "quite opposite" of what the Centre wants the Delhi government to do.
The DPE guidelines, dated January 25, 2000, instructed all government departments to bring down the number of government directors on board of directors of PSUs to two, he said.
Out of 17 members of the board, six are government officials (five are central government nominees and one is a Delhi government nominee), the transport minister said.
"This is much more than what has been prescribed by central government guidelines. Therefore, nomination of four non-government officials by the Delhi government is in accordance with the central government guidelines," Gahlot claimed.
Besides Chadha and Atishi, the Delhi government has nominated Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) vice chairman Jasmine Shah and AAP's Rajya Sabha MP N D Gupta's son Naveen Gupta to the DRMC board of directors.
Gahlot claimed the DPE guidelines "strongly recommend" that non-government officials should be nominated as board members.
In support of his contention, he cited examples of BJP leaders Sambit Patra and Shazia Ilmi serving on the boards of ONGC and Engineers India Limited, respectively.
"What domain expertise do these individuals have?" he asked.
Further, Gahlot cited name of former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana, saying he was appointed as the director and chairman of DMRC by the then NDA government.
"What domain expertise did he have? In sharp contrast, two of our nominees are chartered accountants (Chadha and Gupta) and one of them is an Engineer from IIT(Shah)," he said.
Gahlot said Delhi government officials nominated as directors are "much junior" to the housing and urban affairs secretary who chairs the DMRC board. He claimed that they are unable to speak freely and fearlessly as was observed during the hike in metro fares last year.