New Delhi, Oct 28 (IANS): Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that Lt. Governor has withheld the file of 'Red Light On, Gaadi Off' campaign on the pretext of leave from work.
The Lieutenant Governor has made three excuses for not signing the file. LG should sign the file immediately instead of making excuses. Fighting against pollution is the collective responsibility of all of us, said Gopal Rai.
"Due to the suspension of the campaign by our government, a press note has been sent to the media today as a reply by the LG office giving 3 excuses for not signing the file. The first excuse was that when the file from the Chief Minister's office came to his office on the 21st, there was a holiday for the whole week after that. But I want to say that no Chief Minister, Minister, Governor remains on leave for a week. I myself inaugurated 150 mobile anti-smog guns outside Delhi Secretariat on 25th, the second day of Diwali," Environment minister said.
"A review meeting of the Anti-Dust Campaign was held on 26th in which all the officers were present. We chose to postpone the Red Light On Gaadi Off campaign even after waiting until the 27th for the Lt. Governor's office to respond. By using the holidays to obscure a mistake, one is playing with Delhi's residents' lives," he further added.
As the third excuse, Rai further said, the Lieutenant Governor has said that the date of implementation of the campaign was given in the file as October 31, due to which there has been a delay in signing the file.
"On this, I want to say that when the file was sent to the CM office, the date of 31 October was written in it. But due to the fear of increasing pollution level after Diwali, it was decided to bring it on 28th on the instructions of the Chief Minister, whose information was released in the entire media on 22nd October, which might have been overlooked by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, so he is resorting to such absurd excuses," he added.
"Our LG, who gave the excuse of holidays, had issued statements on October 26 criticising the Chief Minister of Delhi, regarding the preparations for Chhath. I want to know that his office is open to do politics and closed to protect Delhiites from pollution," Gopal Rai said.