Delhi govt appoints transport minister's advisor as vice-chairman of DDC

The Delhi government Monday appointed Jasmine Shah, advisor to Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, as vice-chairman of Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDCD), an advisory body of the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation, an official said.

Shah, an alumni of IIT-Madras and Columbia University, has been advising the government since 2016 on budgetary and transport policy reforms.

The appointment of Shah was cleared at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Kejriwal. The vice-chairman of DDCD enjoys cabinet-level position.

He will succeed Ashish Khetan, who resigned in April this year. Later, Khetan also quit the Aam Aadmi Party.

After his appointment as vice-chairman of DDCD, Shah said he will try to ensure Delhi government's policies have maximum impact on the lives of common people.

"It's an honour and a privilege to serve as the VC of Delhi's Dialogue and Development Commission. Thank you for the opportunity @ArvindKejriwal @msisodia sir! Will leave no stone unturned in ensuring Delhi govt's policies have maximum impact on the lives of countless aam aadmi (sic)," Shah tweeted.

The AAP government had set up the commission in February 2015 to consider ideas, identify the best practices and policies from around the world and translate these into concrete recommendations for transformative change.

The chief minister is the chairman as per the laid down rules notified by the government.

According to Delhi government, for the past year, Shah has been working as advisor to the transport minister and on several important initiatives such as the common mobility card, bus route rationalisation and last-mile connectivity and induction of electric buses.

"With his expertise on government monitoring and evaluation systems, Jasmine was the architect of Delhi's first comprehensive Outcome Budget for 2017-18, a first-of-its-kind initiative in India to bring in complete transparency and accountability in public spending," the government said in a statement.