Delhi Lokayukta on Tuesday issued a notice to chief minister Sheila Dikshit on the complaint of former state BJP chief Harsh Vardhan on the misuse of public money in advertisements about issuing provisional certificates to unauthorised colonies.
Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin in his order has raised five questions on which a reply has been sought from Ms Dikshit by September 22. Just before the Delhi Assembly elections, the city government had distributed provisional certificates of regularisation to unauthorised colonies. However, the Lokayukta has noted that even after two years of distribution of such certificates, none of them have been regularised so far.
The Lokayukta has asked, “whether the move for issuance of provisional regularisation certificates for unauthorised colonies prior to the elections and extensive advertisement thereof was actuated by improper motive or personal interest and/or there was violation of the norms of integrity and conduct which ought to be followed by a public functionary”.
Further, the Lokayukta has asked “whether there was any urgency to warrant issuance of provisional regularisation certificates to all the unauthorised colonies, out of which admittedly 143 could not be regularised at all”.
Also, whether there was any real urgency to warrant issuance of provisional certificates especially when the same did not create any legal status or ownership and the regularisation had been pending for years, asked the Lokayukta.
“Whether the provisional regularisation certificates could be issued without making available the basic services or their availability in the near future in terms of an earlier orders of the Supreme Court,” asked the Lokayukta.
Dr Vardhan had in his complaint mentioned that the Delhi government spent about `3 crores on advertisements on grant of provisional certificates to influence the voters before the Assembly elections.