No sealing drive without written orders: Manoj Tiwari

New Delhi: Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari on Tuesday directed the mayors of all three party ruling municipal corporations to ensure that the municipal staff does not carry out any sealing or demolition without written orders.

Mr Tiwari suggested that in fact before taking any penal action the municipal staff should ensure that a proper show cause notice time is allowed to citizens as mandatory under Delhi Municipal Act 1957.

“During an all party meeting called by the chief minister of Delhi, it was cross confirmed by the members of Supreme Court of India appointed monitoring committee that they do not issue verbal orders. Yet it has been coming to our knowledge almost every day that municipal staff takes unwarranted actions, and on being questioned by public representatives, the officials present at the time cite verbal orders received from the members of monitoring committee,” said Mr Tiwari.

Mr Tiwari pointed that these verbal orders are not lawful. Hence, the mayors should hold meetings with commissioners, deputy commissioners and zonal building and licensing departments heads to make it clear that disciplinary action will be taken against field staff carrying out any penal action citing verbal orders without allowing mandatory notice period.

The Delhi BJP president also tweeted in this regard and drew the attention of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal towards the continued reports of verbal orders being issued by the monitoring committee and has said that it is sad that the chief minister is not speaking a word on this despite news reports. He should also raise a protest against this in the wider public interest, Mr Tiwari added.

D14