AAP takes on Centre for 'hiding' Madhukar Gupta report on DDA

Taking on the central government for not making public the Madhukar Gupta Committee report, the AAP on Monday asked why the Centre has been hiding the report on the DDA for over a year.

In the same vein, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also asked whether the central government is afraid of making the report on the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) public.

"It eludes reasonable understanding why the BJP-led central government has been hiding the report of the Madhukar Gupta Committee on the DDA for more than a year, though it was the Narendra Modi government itself that formed the panel last year," AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha said at a press conference here.

The five-member committee to "revisit and redraft" the Delhi Development Act, 1957, was headed by former Home Secretary Madukar Gupta.

Chadha said the Committee submitted its report to the Union Urban Development Ministry in October 2015, but it is yet to be made public.

"Can the Union Urban Development Ministry deny that it has been sitting on the Madhukar Gupta Committee for over a year? Why is the central government afraid to make this report public? What is the Modi government's stand on implementing its recommendations," Chadha asked.

Chadha maintained that the Centre's silence indicates the report has recommended sweeping changes to improve the functioning of the DDA, which affects the lives of a large number of residents living in the national capital.

"Does the report hold the DDA responsible for Delhi's urban mess? Does it recommend to strip the DDA of its role of land and property management and limit it to that of a central planning authority? Does the report state that elected government of Delhi be given control of land lying unused with the DDA for many decades" he wondered.

Chadha added that it is not the first time that a central government-appointed committee "has recommended that DDA be made accountable to the elected government of Delhi".

"In 2001, a report 'Delhi 21 (Delhi Urban Environment and Infrastructure Improvement Project)', commissioned by the central government, strongly recommended the DDA to be brought under the Delhi government," he said.

"In March 2013, a report of the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission recommended that the central government should display its commitment beginning with transfer of control over the local authorities, such as the DDA, to the GNCTD," he added.

AAP's press conference came after media reports quoting details of the Madhukar Gupta Committee report stated that the DDA has limited itself to being just a "developer" rather than a "facilitator and a regulator".

--IANS

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