New Delhi: Former Delhi chief secretary Shailaja Chandra on Thursday urged Chief Minister Rekha Gupta to show political courage and abandon decades of “appeasement politics” in favour of long-term urban planning.
In an open letter in The Indian Express, Chandra, who also served as secretary in the Union Health Ministry, congratulated Gupta on assuming charge of what she referred to as “India’s most demanding urban assignment”.
At 81, Chandra said she had no political agenda and was not seeking an advisory role - only a response from the Chief Minister to what she described as a “moment of reckoning”.
“You can interrupt the decay - or you can inherit its failed logic. Delhi deserves courage, not administrative tinkering,” she wrote.
Chandra also opined that the chief minister has a rare opportunity to break with the past and outshine even Delhi’s most enduring and popular chief minister, the late Sheila Dikshit, especially with the backing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar.
In her letter, Chandra criticised successive governments for prioritising vote-bank politics over planning, leading to environmental violations and unchecked regularisation of illegal colonies. She urged the CM to cap further regularisation, enforce laws with administrative coordination, and create migrant-responsive housing near job hubs.