Privilege proceedings in Delhi Assembly against 2 SDMC officials over park management

The Delhi Assembly on Monday adopted a petition committee report on alleged irregularities in the maintenance of a South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) park in Greater Kailash and decided to initiate privilege proceedings against two senior officials of the civic body.

Privilege proceedings will be initiated against IAS Nidhi Srivastava and Horticulture Deputy Director RK Singh for "wilfully misleading" the committee and breach of privileges.

The nine-member committee is led by AAP MLA from Greater Kailash, Saurabh Bhardwaj.

Meanwhile, the SDMC informed the committee chairman Saurabh Bharadwaj that it had initiated disciplinary proceedings against "guilty" officers.

In a letter to Bharadwaj, the corporation said files had been moved to initiate disciplinary action against Horticulture Assistance Director Naresh Tomar and former Horticulture Deputy Director SP Meena.

A warning had been issued against two others for their "lackadaisical approach" in handling the case, it said.

A NOC was given to a residents' welfare association to maintain the park, SDMC said in the letter.

The assembly directed the Chief Secretary to ensure "appropriate punishment" to three officers indicted by SDMC and submit an action-taken report within a month.

A petition was filed by Rajan Chadha, chairman of residents welfare society of E-Block in Greater Kailash (I), in November 2018.

The petitions committee found that due and established procedure was "flouted at every level" to terminate the public-private partnership by the three officials of the SDMC's horticulture department during the termination of the agreement between SDMC and the RWA.