New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday urged Lt Governor V K Saxena to focus on improving Delhi’s law and order to prevent another Kanjhawla-like incident and allow his government to do its work, citing how sun and moon function in their own space to ensure that the universe runs smoothly.
Kejriwal made the remark in reply to a letter by Saxena who accused him of “political posturing” during his march to Raj Niwas on January 16 along with his deputy Manish Sisodia and AAP MLAs.
The LG had also invited the Delhi CM and his deputy for a meeting on January 16 but Kejriwal had insisted that he would meet Saxena along with all his MLAs.
“You have written that a few days ago when all of us had come to meet you, you could not meet because we came suddenly without informing you.
“If the chief minister, deputy chief minister, the entire cabinet and all the MLAs of Delhi were standing at your door, then it is obvious that they had come with a big problem related to the state, Kejriwal stated in his letter to the LG.
“If you had wanted, even for five minutes, you could have come out and met us. You didn’t meet us. Because of this, people of the whole state felt disrespected. The people of Delhi felt insulted that the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi refused to meet the representatives of two crore people,” Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal ‘thanked’ the LG for the invitation and said they were ready to come and meet him on Saturday.
The chief minister also urged Saxena to fix the law and order situation so that a Kanjhawla-like incident doe not happen again.
A 20-year-old woman was killed in the early hours of New Year day after her scooter was hit by a car, which dragged her for more than 12 kilometres from Sultanpuri to Kanjhawala.
“Someday if the sun starts to feel that the moon is not working properly, today I will do the work of the moon, then the whole earth will see chaos. The sun does its own work and the moon does its own work, only then the whole universe runs smoothly.
“Let the CM do his work, you fix the law and order of Delhi so that cases like Kanjhawala don’t happen again. Only then, Delhi’s system will be fine.”
In the letter, Saxena also pointed out several indices to flag the discrepancies in the education system in the national capital.
Citing statistics, Saxena said the average attendance in government schools, which was 70.73 per cent in 2012-2013, consistently fell year on year, reaching 60.65 per cent in 2019-2020.
Kejriwal, however, noted in his letter, said the criticism was ‘duly respected’.
“The people of Delhi have given us a historic majority thrice. In the eyes of the public, we are doing good work. Your criticism is duly respected,” Kejriwal said.
Opining that no system is perfect, Kejriwal said tremendous improvements have taken place in the education system of Delhi as compared to earlier time.
“But much remains to be done. There is still a long way to go. If the Centre and all the LGs had not obstructed the work of the people of Delhi in the past years, we would have achieved much more by now,” he said.
Advising the LG to avoid politics, Kejriwal said on one hand, he stops payments of salaries, lab tests, rent and electricity bills of all doctors of mohalla clinics in Delhi and then says these facilities were not doing well.
“On the one hand, the LG orders the officers to stop all the funds of the Delhi Jal Board and then says the people of Delhi are not getting water. Sir, this type of politics is not good. The Lieutenant Governor should avoid such politics,” he stressed.
The chief minister went on to say that the Constitution had given LG three responsibilities: Delhi’s law and order, Delhi Police and DDA.
“Today Delhi’s law and order is the worst in the whole country. When the world calls Delhi the rape capital, every Delhiite hangs their head in shame. Crime is continuously increasing in Delhi. It has become difficult for any woman to get out of the house,” Kejriwal said.
He also cited the incident in which Delhi Commission of Women chief Swati Maliwal was allegedly molested by an inebriated man and dragged by his car for 10-15 metres with her hand stuck in the vehicle window.
“If the chairperson of the women’s commission is not safe, then I fear what a common woman goes through,” he said.
Kejriwal even said the people of Delhi have not seen LG doing any work on law and order of Delhi till date.
“The people of Delhi have only seen you interfering in the day-to-day affairs of their elected government. There is a lot of anger among the people over why you put obstacles in the work of the people everyday?
“If the people of Delhi wanted to send their teachers abroad for training then why did you stop it? Because you stop people’s work every day, the people only say who is the LG? How can he stop our work? The Constitution has given you the task of fixing the law and order situation in Delhi. Why don’t you do that? The Constitution has given us the rest of the work, let us do our work. Even if you don’t like our work, you have no right to impede our work just like we don’t impede your work,” he added.
In his letter, Saxena also accused Kejriwal of making “misleading and derogatory remarks” and resorting to a “low level of discourse”.
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