NEW DELHI:

accused Aam Aadmi Party MLAs of “storming Raj Niwas... and laying siege“ to his office on Wednesday and “displaying conduct unbecoming of responsible elected representatives“. Baijal's statement came in the wake of his meeting with the MLAs to discuss pending

, after which the 43 legislators refused to leave his office, demanding that the issue be resolved immediately.

The MLAs, who reached the LG secretariat around 2.40pm, finally left around 9pm, after the LG agreed to meet the CM and the cabinet on Thursday evening. Saurabh Bharadwaj, MLA from GK, said the LG became angry during the meeting even though “there was no provocation from the MLAs“ and stormed out after spending “three minutes and 23 seconds“ with them. “We sent multiple messages and a letter to him but he refused to communicate with us,“ Bharadwaj said.

The

's flagship project to construct 1,000 mohalla clinics in the city is on the verge of collapse due to non-availability of land. Bharadwaj had sought time with LG last week to discuss why the file on mohalla clinics was not being cleared and on Friday went vocal on social media, saying the LG had no time for elected representatives. Sources said the LG then agreed to meet any five MLAs at his office on Wednesday . However, the meeting lasted just a brief while, during which both parties accused each other of “rude behavior“. What followed were accusations and counter-accusations, and constant tweets by the CM, deputy CM and MLAs.

The LG's office said, “After a patient hearing of the views of the MLAs, (the LG) explained the current status of the proposal and clearly outlined the progress so far. However, unfortunately , the behaviour of the members increasingly became extremely rude and discourteous. Despite being given a chronological status of the entire proposal and repeatedly being told that the proposal has been returned to the CM on July 5, 2017, with a request to address the complaints, the MLAs continued to behave in a belligerent manner without any interest in responding to facts and logic“.

The LG spoke to CM

around 5pm and reportedly asked him to meet him at his office immediately. The CM's office refuted this, saying that it was the CM who offered to go and meet Baijal with officials concerned but he refused.

“The stalemate started over the location of the file on mohalla clinics. The LG said it had been returned to the CM's office and was not with him. The government had checked with all departments, which said the file was not with them. While the meeting was going on, health minister Satyendar Jain received a note marked August 29 from the vigilance department, raising some frivolous issues based on complaints by other political parties,“ said a government official.

Vigilance minister Manish Sisodia told TOI the LG had given in writing that the elected government had no role to play in the vigilance department. “I met the LG about 10 days back to discuss this issue and he told me he had asked for the file the same day and it had already reached his office. In the past 10 days then, he either returned the file to vigilance which withheld the information from the government or in sending the letter to Jain, he attempted a cover up,“ Sisodia said.

“The file has been going from his office to the vigilance department which reports to him, and back. Why are they wasting time over such an important issue? Are they waiting for a Gorakhpurlike tragedy to happen in Delhi?“ Sisodia said.

The statement from the LG office said he had given his approval to the cabinet decision for opening of mohalla clinics on January 9, subject to “rulesprocedures“. However, the statement noted, that complaints were received in the LG's secretariat between September and December 2016 “pertaining to conceptualisation and implementation of clinics that have been set up so far“. As per LG's of fice, the complaints related to lack of transparency in selecting premises for mohalla clinics, high rent of premises, renting of space belonging to party workers, no proper accounting of patients examined (which decides payment to doctors) etc.

In his letter to the LG after receiving the note from the vigilance department on Wednesday afternoon, Jain said: “I can assure you that not a single wrongdoing would be tolerated in the mohalla clinic project. However, a few random instances cannot be the reason for stalling the establishment of all mohalla clinics in Delhi. I would urge the LG to have specific instances sent to me on the basis of which these allegations have been made so that these could be inquired into,“ “Kindly don't scuttle the entire mohalla clinic project due to some motivated complaints by our political opponents like Ajay Maken and Vijender Gupta,“ Jain added.

AAP claimed that the file related to the in-principle approval of mohalla clinics had been sent for approval to the LG in May 2017. He then returned it in July to the vigilance department with a complaint from Maken, seeking the government's reply . However, the chief secretary and vigilance secretary refused to show the file to Sisodia, the vigilance minister, saying they had been directed by the LG to not put up any vigilance-related file before him.

“As a result, the construction of all new mohalla clinics has stopped in Delhi. Normally it takes two-four months to construct a mohalla clinic. If the LG had given his approval in time, more than 500 clinics could have been constructed by October.Not just new clinics, but even those under construction have been stopped,“ Bharadwaj said. The LG office maintained that after the files on cabinet decisions on mohalla clinics were sent to the CM on July 5, they had not been submitted to his office again. “No request for allotment of land for the clinics from the elected government is pending with the LG office. In his discussions with the CM and health minister, the LG has repeatedly stressed on the need to lay down a proper standard operating procedure for establishing these mohalla clinics within the ambit of various rules,“ his office said.