by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Nivedita Singh,
New Delhi : The national capital’s first parking policy, which will restrict free parking in residential and public spaces and will enforce strict fines and criminal proceedings against vehicle owners found in violation of its provisions, has been stuck for more than 10 months, apparently caught in a tussle between the city government and the Lt Governor.
Officials say the file is pending with Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot even after its draft rules, titled Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Rules, 2017, were published in January after a nod from both Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal and the minister.
“The policy is pending with the minister since August. It has to go to the LG for notification,” an official from the Transport Department told IANS on the condition of anonymity.
The minister, the official said, was not sending the file to the LG “because he claims it is not required” in view of Supreme Court’s July 4 verdict stating that the Lt Governor does not have independent decision-making powers and is bound to act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.
Soon after the verdict, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced that the files of the Delhi government “need not be sent to the LG for approval”.
But a Transport Department official said that the officers “cannot issue a gazette notification without the LG’s approval” and if the government does not send the file for LG’s approval, “it can’t be notified” and implemented.
“The parking rules are under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and the competent authority is the LG. So, the LG’s nod is not only important but essential in this case,” the official added.
Despite repeated attempts, IANS could not contact Gahlot. His officials did not call back to comment on the development.
According to the notification, issued on January 29, “the said draft will be taken into consideration by the Delhi Government on or after the expiry of 30 days from the date on which copies of the draft rules, publish in Delhi Gazette, are made available to the public”.
The 30-day time was given for raising objections or suggestions by the public in the rules to the Secretary-cum-Commissioner (Transport).
The policy, when implemented, will restrict free parking in residential and public spaces and the parking charges will be decided by civic agencies in consultation with the RWAs.
According to the draft rules, there will be an Apex Monitoring Committee, headed by the Delhi Chief Secretary, which will determine the Base Parking Fee (BPF). The committee — also including Principal Secretary, Urban Development Department, Transport Commissioner, Principal Secretary, Public Works Department, among others — will meet at least once in three months to ensure and review proper implementation and compliance of the rules.
“No surface parking of duration of more than one hour shall ordinarily be allowed within 500-meter of a multilevel/stack parking. The 500-meter radius of the multi-level facility will be designated as ‘no-parking’ zone for all streets,” the draft rules read, adding that, “in case, some essential on-street parking has to be provided within the 500-meter zone, it will be priced exponentially, at least three times the on-street parking rates”.
The policy will also restrict the construction of parking structures in green areas. It will identify roads and spaces for granting permission for overnight parking of Transport Vehicles.
“The parking of vehicles would be permitted during night hours only, upon payment, provided that such roads and spaces will be away from the residential areas and parking should not hinder the smooth flow of traffic. The civic agencies will manage the parking on these notified roads and spaces in an organised manner,” it reads.
No night-time parking of heavy and medium Transport Vehicles will be allowed except on the notified roads and spaces, according to the draft rules.
Experts believe that this will improve decongestion of the roads in the national capital.
According to the government data, Delhi, as of January 2017, has more than one crore registered vehicles, which is more than the number of vehicles in other metropolitan cities in India. However, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) collectively offer space to 72,434 vehicles for parking, out of which 54,982 are surface parking while 17,452 are underground or multilevel parking.
The parking infrastructure to meet the demand of increasing number of private vehicles can be catered only upto a certain limit, according to the draft rule, which also added that several policy approaches were suggested since 2003 by various agencies, however, “a comprehensive policy framework to address this problem could not be evolved”.
(Nivedita Singh can be contacted at nivedita.singh@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Leader of Opposition and BJP MLA Vijender Gupta on Thursday met Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal to urge him to prevail upon the Delhi government not to deny the benefits of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Arogya Yojna to the citizens.
Gupta, along with other Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs O.P. Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan, also wrote a letter to Baijal demanding the same.
“We would like to draw your kind attention to the fact that whereas around 1.25 lakh patients all over India have sought complex tertiary care procedures in the last two months under the Central government’s flagship health scheme, the Delhi government has persistently refused to be its part, thereby depriving benefits of the scheme to more than 20 lakh poor and vulnerable citizens who have hardly any access to medical facilities including hospitalisation”, they wrote.
Gupta said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, out of political “ill-will”, is denying the benefits to the poor.
“Most of the states and Union Territories have adopted the scheme, but AAP government’s insistence on certain unreasonable changes sound politically motivated… There is no logic in depriving the poor people of the benefit of the scheme. We seek your kind intervention in the matter and request you to advise Delhi government to adopt the scheme.”
The Centre’s health scheme was launched in September across the nation.
The MLAs also urged Baijal to restart and strengthen the Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) scheme to strengthen the ration system in Delhi.
“It can be built on the pattern of a similar scheme in Haryana and on the basis of the terms and conditions signed a deal with a company named BEL. When the process for identifying fake ration cards started in accordance with the scheme, all of a sudden in November 2017, Kejriwal started talking about cancellation of this scheme and for adopting Door Step Delivery system,” Gupta told the media.
Gupta added that in December 2017, referring to some complaints, Delhi’s Food Minister issued instructions to ban the E-PoS scheme. It must now be fully restored.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Garbage in Taimur Nagar slum area in New Delhi. (Image The Asian Age)
New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed displeasure on the failure of Delhi Lt Governor, whom it termed “Superman”, for not taking effective steps to tackle garbage problem in the city, after his office admitted that waste management comes within its jurisdiction.
A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta slammed Lt. Governor Anil Baijal for not taking appropriate action on the issue of solid waste management in Delhi and took into note that he did not attend crucial meetings on the issue and had not passed any directions too.
On Tuesday, the bench had asked who is responsible for clearing the “mountain loads of garbage” – those answerable to the Delhi Lt Governor or the Chief Minister. In response, both the Delhi government and the Lt Governor on Thursday told the court that the Lt Governot has the power to issue directions to authorities concerned under the provisions of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act on disposal of solid waste.
The bench said the meetings held by the Delhi Health Minister would not be not accepted by the Lt Governor because he would say it was chaired by someone without authority. “Who is the Health Minister according to LG?” asked the court.
“Nobody from LG’s office bothered to attend meetings and he says I have the power. I am Superman… It’s passing buck, he says ‘I am responsible, I will not do anything, but you will be blamed’,” the bench said.
“Your (LG) affidavit says it’s (solid waste management) your responsibility. So don’t bring Chief Minister into the picture,” it added.
The court, which was upset as there was no concrete plan for solid waste management in the city and said “mountains of garbage” (three landfill sites) – Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa – indicate that Delhi is facing a grave situation and directed the Lt Governor’s office to file an affidavit by July 16 on the time frame about the steps to be taken to deal with the situation.
The bench said the situation in Delhi was “absolutely bizarre”, and referred to three landfill sites as “mountains of garbage”.
It said there was a 65-metre mound at Ghazipur which was “only eight metres less than the historic Qutub Minar”.
“What about Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa. Last time, we were told that it Ghazipur landfill had 62 metre mountain of garbage. Now your affidavit says it is 65 metre which is only eight metre less than the Qutub Minar,” the bench added.
The top court, hearing a matter related to implementation of the Solid Waste Management Rules, had earlier directed the Central government to file a chart indicating whether the states and union territories have constituted state-level advisory boards in accordance with the provisions of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment, Government Jobs, News, Politics, Private Jobs
Arvind Kejriwal
New Delhi : Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday “pleaded” with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to recruit more pharmacists in government hospitals.
“Today, again, I plead before you with folded hands to please take immediate steps to recruit more pharmacists to provide relief to the patients,” Kejriwal wrote to Baijal.
The letter comes a day after Kejriwal made a surprise visit to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital here and found long queues at the pharmacy.
“My intention is not to find faults or point fingers,” it read.
Last week, vacant posts in the hospitals became a flashpoint between Baijal and Kejriwal with both blaming each other for the delay in making appointments.
Kejriwal had told Baijal that 2,169 posts were lying vacant in hospitals as the latter had approved a decision to hire only retired personnel, and added that not enough retired personnel were available.
He alleged that the elected government was being kept in the dark about the decision and said: “I would also be grateful if necessary directions are issued to all officers to stop hiding files from the elected government.”
Responding to the Chief Minister, Baijal had said that the proposal to appoint retired employees to the vacancies was moved by the Health and Family Welfare Department on directions of the Chief Minister in a meeting on August 8, 2017.
“The minutes of that meeting were also issued by the CM Office. Therefore, it is surprising that the Chief Minister has now raised questions regarding the filling up of vacant posts with retired personnel,” Baijal had said.
—IANS
