: Delhi LG seeks removal of AAP govt nominees from Anil Ambani-owned DISCOMs Board #IndiaNEWS #India New Delhi: Alleging total violation of Constitutional provisions by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government

Delhi LG seeks removal of AAP govt nominees from Anil Ambani-owned DISCOMs Board #IndiaNEWS #India
New Delhi: Alleging total violation of Constitutional provisions by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in illegal appointment of private individuals as government nominees on the Board of Anil Ambani-owned DISCOMS BRPL (BSES Rajdhani Power Limited) and BYPL (BSES Yamuna Power Limited), Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Friday asked for the removal of these nominees and replace them with Senior Government Officers, as had been the practice in the past.
These nominees include AAP Spokesperson Jasmine Shah, Naveen ND Gupta (son of AAP MP, ND Gupta), Umesh Tyagi and JS Deswal.
According to the Raj Niwas statement, their nomination to the Boards of the DISCOMS was patently illegal since the due process of law was not followed and their appointment was void ab initio. The LG has taken these decisions on the basis of an inquiry report submitted by the Delhi Power Department and the Chief Secretary in light of a complaint dated September 26, 2022.
These compromised nominees provided undue financial benefits running into thousands of crores to Ambanis DISCOMS, at the cost of the state exchequer and Delhi government-run undertakings (DTL, IPGCL and PPCL). LG has asked for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to be informed about this and action be taken.
It has been brought out in the report that, these private individuals were illegally appointed surreptitiously by the AAP government as government nominees on the Board of BRPL and BYPL in 2019, despite written objections on file by the then LG, Najeeb Jung on November 1, 2016 and LG, Anil Baijal on August 11, 2017.
In 2017, CM Kejriwal had sent a file proposing their appointment as government nominees, disposing of which Baijal had directed that a Cabinet Decision in this regard be taken and sent to him so that, he could invoke difference of opinion as per clause 4 of Article 239AA of the Constitution of India.
However, the Cabinet took a decision to appoint them and instead of sending the file to LG, Baijal, who would have invoked the said clause, surreptitiously notified the appointment of these private individuals as government nominees on the Board of the DISCOMS. Once appointed these government nominees rather than taking care of the government interests, in cahoots with the Anil Ambani nominees on the Board, facilitated a decision of the DISCOM Boards of unilaterally lowering interest rates charged on LPSC (that these DISCOMS owed to DTL/PPCL/IGPCL), from 15-18 per cent to 12 per cent, thereby causing a loss of Rs 8683. 67 crore, said the statement.
It may be noted that the Delhi government has 49 per cent shares in these private DISCOMS and as per Article VI of the shareholders agreement, the government nominees on its Boards have the veto right to block any inappropriate proposal that is detrimental to the state finances.

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