Delhi’s road quality dispute has escalated after Aam Aadmi Party MLA Jarnail Singh said he issued a defamation notice to Delhi minister Parvesh Verma and gave him seven days to apologise for allegations made against him. Singh also said he had complained against the minister to the Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Branch.
The notice relates to statements Verma allegedly made against Singh during a dispute linked to road repair work on a stretch of the Outer Ring Road between Janakpuri District Centre Chowk and the Najafgarh drain. The matter has also drawn attention to how elected representatives and ministers respond to complaints about the quality of public infrastructure.
According to the report by Live Hindustan – NCR, Singh said the notice was issued after what he described as an effort to defame him over several days. He said Verma had seven days to apologise, failing which he would be prepared to face a defamation case. Singh also alleged that the minister had focused on an altercation with a young man instead of action against engineers over the road work.
The allegations have not been established independently in the supplied report. Singh’s statements concern the quality of road construction and the conduct of the inspection, while Verma has given a different account of the incident. The minister said he had called Singh to the inspection site, but that the MLA arrived with a crowd of supporters and behaved improperly, according to the report.
Verma also said that a young man abused his family during the interaction and that he slapped him in the heat of the moment. The incident reportedly took place on Sunday while the minister was inspecting repair work on the Outer Ring Road stretch. A video of the incident has circulated in connection with the dispute, although the supplied report does not provide an independent assessment of the footage.
The confrontation followed social media posts by Singh about what he described as poor-quality road work on the same stretch. The episode has therefore combined two separate questions: whether the road repair met the required standard and how public officials handled criticism during an on-site inspection. The report does not provide details of the contract, contractor, work specifications, inspection findings or any engineering assessment of the road.
Delhi Police has registered a non-cognisable report against Verma in connection with the incident, the report said. The Aam Aadmi Party has demanded that a First Information Report be registered instead. The supplied account does not state whether the Anti-Corruption Branch has begun an investigation into Singh’s complaint or whether any department has ordered a technical review of the road.
The immediate next step identified in the report is the seven-day deadline in the defamation notice. Any further legal action, police decision or official assessment of the road repair will determine whether the dispute remains a political and legal confrontation or leads to formal scrutiny of the public works in question.