NewDelhi: The fight between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the Lt Governor escalated on Monday over the installation of CCTV cameras in Delhi. CM Arvind Kejriwal, his Cabinet ministers and MLAs sat on a dharna for over three hours near the LG office, asking him “not to stall” the project under “pressure from the BJP”.
Kejriwal and his colleagues sat on dharna after the police officials deployed at LG Anil Baijal’s office told the CM that he and his ministers can meet Baijal, but the AAP legislators will not be allowed to go with them. Shortly after, Kejriwal, his ministers, legislators and AAP supporters sat on a dharna barely 100 metres from Baijal’s office in protest.
The dharna began around 3:30 pm and ended at 6:40 pm with Kejriwal vowing to reach out to people to tell them that the “BJP and the LG are disrupting the installation of CCTV cameras in the city”.
“Our MLAs will hold meetings in their localities and tell people that the BJP and the LG are hampering installation of CCTV cameras and elicit their views on it. The standard operating procedure for installing CCTV cameras will be decided by the people, and not by a shahanshah (LG),” he said at the end of over three-hour long sit-in, reported.
On his part, the Delhi LG said, “Despite agreeing to meet Arvind Kejriwal with his ministers and MP, although my yesterday’s letter had clarified that no proposal for installation of CCTVs has been received nor I have issued any orders to stall/stop award of work, CM prefers to protest without reason.”
Before sitting on the protest, the AAP leaders had taken out a march from Kejriwal’s official residence in Civil Lines area to Baijal’s office.
Kejriwal, his ministerial colleagues including his deputy Manish Sisodia and PWD Minister Satyendar Jain, and AAP MLAs, began their march at 3 pm under heavy police security cover.
During the two-kilometre march, they raised slogans against the LG and the BJP. In its 2015 manifesto election, the AAP had promised to install at least 10 lakh CCTV cameras in the city for the security of women.
The ruling dispensation in Delhi has been opposing the LG-appointed committee constituted for preparing a common framework for installation and monitoring of CCTV cameras.
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