New Delhi, Nov 26: Taking forward her tussle with Lt Governor Tejindra Khanna, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today asked the Centre to nullify an order issued during NDA regime in 2002 giving unbridled power to the office of the Lt Governor.
Strongly pushing for revocation of the order, Dikshit said persistent "differences" over fixing of revised circle rates in the city have brought to the fore difficulties in proper functioning of her government which forced it to take such a hard position on the issue.
"We have already spoken (to the Centre)...Yes we have requested them," she said replying to a question on whether Government approached the Centre to nullify the order.
Dikshit said in the year 2002, the order was issued by the NDA regime mentioning that Government of NCT (National Capital Territory) of Delhi means the Lt Governor of Delhi.
"We have been speaking against it (the order) time and again. We wrote that time also that this is not correct. This should be withdrawn. It was not withdrawn. It has not been withdrawn and we have always not made the kind of demand that we made two days ago primarily because things were going on in a peaceful manner," she said.
Dikshit had attacked Khanna yesterday during her reply to a resolution on granting full statehood to Delhi and accused him of undermining the powers of her government and interfering in its functioning.
The Chief Minister said the government had to take a strong position on the issue as "a great difference of opinion" came around and when a decision of the Cabinet was "returned twice" only on the basis of BJP's complaint.
"We could have been called over. The Lt Governor has the perfect right to call us over, to call me over, to call the minister over, sort out (the differences) which we have done many times."
Asked whether Government wants removal of the Lt Governor, Dikshit said there was no such demand.
"That is not our demand. I would like to clarify that this is not aginst any individual. This is against a system that has evolved which has landed us in this kind of differences," Dikshit added.
The Chief Minister said government was incurring a loss of Rs 3 crore daily for non-implementation of the new circle rates.
Asked to comment on leader of Opposition V K Malhotra's remark that a constitutional crisis has evolved because of her attack on the Lt Governor, Dikshit rejected it.
"This is not a constitutional crisis. We wanted to raise the question...Our objective is that if powers of an elected government is eroded or vetoed, we reject this kind of order because at the end people of Delhi look to the elected government whosoever it may be. The issue here is about curtailing powers of an elected government."
Khanna had twice returned the file pertaining to the circle rates insisting that his recommendations for revision of the rate for certain colonies should be accepted by the government.
The Cabinet had fixed Rs 9,000 per sq m as the lowest rate while the upper limit will be Rs 1,25,000 per sq m. PTI
