Delhi LG alleges violation by AAP, seeks removal of govt nominees from Anil Ambani-owned DISCOMs Board

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 Ambani's 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.