Outcome Report misleading, 97% files approved: LG

NEW DELHI: Lashing out at the Delhi government's outcome report on Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, the office of the LG on Thursday asserted that the report was misleading and 97 per cent of the files were approved when they reached the LG.

"Whatever has been reported in the media contains incorrect and misleading information. Files or proposals which are pending with the elected government for a long time have been shown to be pending with the office of the Lieutenant Governor, which is incorrect."

On the other hand, there are cases which are not included (for example, DSEAB, Annexure B), where the file remained pending with the Minister for more than two years (768 days) without any reason," noted the LG's office in its statement.

The statement further noted that the LG's office has not received a copy of the so-called Outcome Report and has also not been consulted while making the report.

"During the tenure of the present elected government, this office has received nearly 10,000 files and proposals seeking approval of the LG, including those on reserved subjects. Out of these, 97 per cent of the proposals were concurred to without any change.

"Only two proposals were sent to the President as there was a difference of opinion under the relevant transaction of business rules, while only a few (less than 3 per cent of the total received) were returned to the elected government for seeking clarifications or incorporating suggestions as the proposals suffered from various shortcomings or infirmities," the statement noted.

The LG office observed that in case of proposals, which involved an expenditure of public money earned through the hard work of taxpayers, suggestions were given to make the schemes focused on the real poor and needy rather than providing a subsidy to all without any income limit.

Talking about the Home Delivery of Ration Scheme, the statement noted, "The best way to reduce corruption and discretion is to minimise human interface.

"Therefore, proposals which only replaced one set of human interface with another were returned with an advice to minimise such human interface and leverage latest technologies, including digital delivery to remove corruption and increase transparency and efficiency."

Talking about the files pertaining to the Delhi government's Mohalla clinics project, the LG's office stated, "It is noteworthy that in the pilot project of Mohalla Clinics, a number of serious complaints related to favouritism to Aam Aadmi Party volunteers in selection of sites of clinics, lack of transparency in selection and deployment of doctors, data rigging for inflating the payment to the doctors and staff, exorbitant rents for the rented sites, etc, had been received. The Vigilance department had found prima-facie substance in these complaints."