New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, along with his cabinet colleagues and other AAP legislators, on Monday staged a sit-in near the Lieutenant Governor (LG)’s office after the latter reportedly refused to meet him over the CCTV row.
Kejriwal, along with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, PWD Minister Satyendar Jain, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot and several other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators had gone to meet the LG. But when the police did not allow them to enter, they sat on the road.
The AAP leaders were protesting against stalling of contentious CCTV project by LG Anil Baijal.
Sisodia on Saturday wrote to the Lt Governor, asking him to meet the Ministers and legislators at 3 p.m on Monday over the CCTV installation issue.
“We are the elected government and want to meet the LG. He meets BJP MLAs on short notice, why can’t he meet us? We want to meet him, this is for the women of Delhi,” Sisodia told IANS.
“They only allow a few of us, why he is scared to meet all of you. We are the elected representative of the people, he should meet us,” he said
On Tuesday, Baijal formed the committee to come up with a standard operating procedure for the installation, operation and monitoring of closed-circuit television (CCTVs) cameras.
“According to the committee, they will set up an authority which will give permission for camera installation. He feels the need of this after over two lakh cameras have already been installed in the city. There was no need for any permission when the NDMC or the PWD install cameras, but when we plan to install cameras they want us to take permission,” Delhi Minister and AAP leader Gopal Rai said.
Kejriwal, who is leading the protest, told IANS: “There is not even a single representative of the Delhi government in the committee. We want to meet him to urge not to play with the security of our daughters.”
According to a statement issued form the LG’s office, it has not received any proposal for the installation of CCTV cameras.
Claiming that Kejriwal was “misleading the public”, the statement said: “The LG agrees to meet the Chief Minister, Council of Ministers and the Member of Parliament. But Kejriwal prefers to sit on a dharna and avoid constructive deliberations.”
Sitting on the road, the MLAs were chanting slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the LG.
Although they ended the dharna after more than three hours, saying the party people will go to every area and will tell people that the “BJP and the LG are not allowing installation of CCTV cameras”.
“Our MLAs will meet people in their areas and will tell them that the BJP and the LG are hampering the installation of CCTV cameras. We will ask the public to decide the standard operating procedure for installing the cameras and I will see who can stop the people,” Kejriwal told the media at the end of the dharna.
It is the first time since his swearing-in as the Chief Minister in February 2015 that he sat on a dharna on road.
IANS