Senior IAS officer Shakuntala Gamlin has shot off a letter to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, accusing Delhi Industries Minister Satyendra Jain of putting pressure on her over conversion of industrial plots from leasehold to freehold, a charge "strongly refuted" by the minister.
In her letter to Jung, Gamlin, whose appointment as the acting chief secretary had triggered a turf war between the Lt Governor and AAP Government, alleged that despite the fact that land does not come under Delhi Government, the Industries Minister put pressure on her to submit a note for the Council of Ministers proposing conversion of the industrial land from leasehold to freehold.
Jain, however, argued that he had only written to the concerned department to examine the feasibility of the proposal about which several organisations had given representation to him.
"If I get representation from numbers of organisations, will I not send it to the concerned department for examination? Is it not natural that the department concerned will be asked to examine the particular proposal and look into its feasibility?" asked Jain.
The minister also questioned the way the letter got leaked to media.
"Will it not be sent to the law department for looking into its legal validity? It would have been better had the concerned officer returned back to me in place of some other authority which eventually got leaked to the media. I fail to understand which kind of pressure is being talked about," he added.
While main opposition BJP latched on to the issue to attack the AAP Government demanding a thorough probe into the issue, Congress came in support of the Delhi Government with DPCC Chief Ajay Maken saying that "we are supportive of conversion of leasehold into freehold".
Gamlin's appointment as the acting chief secretary had sparked off a showdown with the AAP accusing the L-G of attempting a "coup" and bypassing an elected government to get in officers of his choice. The matter is now pending before the Supreme Court.
"The Industries Minister had been continuously pressing me to submit a note for the Council of Ministers proposing therein conversion of industrial plots in the city from leasehold to freehold even after full facts pertaining to the legal ramifications of the case that the matter was not within the competence of GNCT Delhi had been brought to his notice," Gamlin, who is Principal Secretary (Power & Industry), said in her letter.
