DPCC president Ajay Maken threatens dharnas and demonstrations if the post of Lokayukta not filled within a week.

NEW DELHI, July 6—Thousands of Congress workers, under the leadership of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Shri Ajay Maken, today held a massive demonstration against 30 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, for their involvement in various cases, in front of the Lokayukta office at ITO today.  Shri Ajay Maken also submitted a petition to the Delhi Lokayukta against Kejriwal and 29 AAP MLAs.

Despite heavy showers, a large number of Congress workers started assembling at the DPCC office, Rajiv Bhawan, at DDU Marg, from 10 a.m. The demonstrators carried playcards and banners against the Kejriwal Government, and shouted slogans such as “Lokayukta lana hai—bhrashtachariyon ko jail pahunchana hai”, “Bhrashtachar mitana hai, Lokpal ko lana hai”, “Bhrashtacharion ko padmukth karo—Lokpal niyukth karo”, etc. The demonstrators also carried an empty chair, with Lokayukta written on it and a question mark, as a symbolic protest for keeping the post of the Lokayukta vacant, and also an effigy of Arvind Kejriwal, depicting like Ravan with six heads, denoting the 6 AAP MLAs against whom enquiries are  on.

A heavy police contingent used force to prevent the Congress workers from proceeding towards the Lokayukta office, and also used water cannons to disperse them. But the determined Congress workers stood their ground, and submitted a petition against the 30 AAP MLAs at  the Lokayukta office.

Besides Shri Ajay Maken, AICC incharge of Delhi Shri P.C.Chacko and chief spokesperson Smt. Sharmishta Mukherjee, prominent others who participated in the demonstration were ex-MP Mahabal Mishra, ex-MLAs Dr Narendra Nath, Harishankar Gupta, Anil Bhardwaj, Bisham Sharma, Neeraj Basoya, Devendra Yadav, Amrish Gautam, Surendra Kumar, Jaswant Rana, Madan Khorwal, Brahm Yadav, Jagpravesh Kumar, Leaders of the Opposition in the MCD Mukesh Goel, Farhad Suri and Varyam Kaur,  Virender Kasana, Chattar Singh, Omprakash Bidhuri, Suresh Malik, Rajendra Malik, Jaikishan Sharma, Ramesh Dutta, Ragini Nayak, Seva Dal chief Dineshwar Tyagi, Mahila Congress president Onika Mehrotra, Vijay Singh Lochav, Ajit Choudhary, Ajit Yadav, Tarun Kumar, Jagjeevan Sharma, advocate Sunil Kumar, Abhishek Dutt and Prerna Singh.

Addressing thousands of Congress demonstrators, who fully blocked the DDU Marg road, leading to the ITO crossing, Shri Ajay Maken said since the post of the Lokayukta was lying vacant, the Congress workers submitted a petition against Kejriwal and 29 other AAP MLAs to an “empty chair” of the Lokayukta, and later  at the Lokayukta office.

Shri Ajay Maken recalled that the Arvind Kejriwal Government had run away after 49 days in power in their first term in office on the issue of the formation of the Jan Lokpal, but this time around, after being in power for over 150 days, the Kejriwal Government has neither taken any initiative to introduce the Lokpal Bill, nor has it bothered to appoint a Lokayukta, though the post of the Lokayukta has been lying vacant since November, 2013. Blaming the BJP-led Central Government and the AAP Government in Delhi for the present state of affairs, Shri Ajay Maken said the BJP and the AAP had made big talks about fighting against corruption, but so far, neither a Lokpal has been appointed at the Centre, nor a Lokayukta in Delhi. Shri Maken said the Central and Delhi Government know very well that if a Lokpal and a Lokayukta are appointed at the Centre and in Delhi respectively, the wrong doings and corruption of the BJP and the AAP  would be exposed. Shri Maken said an enquiry was being conducted against six AAP MLAs in the fake degree scandal, and had the Lokayukta been appointed, these MLAs would have been in jail by now.

Shri Ajay Maken said there were several disgruntled AAP MLAs who want to become Ministers, but according to the rules, not more than 10 per cent of the MLAs can become Ministers in Delhi.  But Kejriwal, fearing that these disgruntled AAP MLAs may desert him, brought out an amendment through back date, i.e. March 13, 2015 to appoint 21 Parliamentary secretaries, which was an unprecedented act of twisting the law, as the earlier precedent was to appoint a parliamentary secretary only to the Chief Minister, and not to the Ministers. He said these 21 Parliamentary secretaries were also being provided all the facilities like Ministers, such as Government vehicles, office and other perks. Shri Ajay Maken, giving the example of the previous Congress Government, said the Congress Government also used to appoint Parliamentary secretaries, but their numbers were very minimal and they used to get hardly any Government facilities.

Shri Ajay Maken said on the one hand, the Kejriwal Government claims that it does not have money, and as a result the sanitation staff, doctors etc were not paid their salaries on time. The  pension of old people, handicapped and widows  have not been paid either for the past several months and the budgets for the PWD and the Delhi Jal Board have also been cut. But on the other hand, a budget outlay of Rs 526.19 crores have been made for print, television and radio publicity, which was a gross wastage of public money for self-publicity by the AAP Government, which seemed to have cast off its image as the party of the “aam aadmi”. Shri Maken said after a special song on FM radio, Kejriwal sings his paen of praise, on which lakhs of rupees of Government money are being squandered.   He said this money could have been used for the development works in Delhi, and for paying the pension of the old, widows, handicapped and the wages of the sanitation staff and the Government doctors.

Shri Ajay Maken said the Kejriwal Government was spending money like water to appoint  AAP volunteers on various posts, and so far 200 such workers have been appointed as “consultants” on high salaries ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh per month, per consultant. He said the wife of an AAP leader from Haryana was appointed on a high salary in Delhi, fearing that she may join hands with estranged AAP leader Yogendra Yadav.

Shri Ajay Maken said for the first time in the history of the Delhi Government, the AAP Government appointed LDCs and drivers without the requisite qualification, and they have been given one year to complete their educational qualification.

Shri Ajay Maken warned that if the Lokayukta was not appointed in Delhi within a week, the Congress workers will hold dharnas and demonstrations at every district in Delhi, against the Kejriwal Government. And despite the Congress party’s Delhi-wide protest, the Kejriwal Government still delays in filling the Lokayukta’s post, the Congress workers will fan out to all the 280 blocks of Delhi to hold demonstrations and dharnas.

AICC incharge of Delhi Shri P.C.Chacko said the Kejriwal Government was not appointing a Lokayukta in Delhi, fearing that if the post is filled, its own MLAs would be in trouble, and many of them would land in jail like former Law Minister Jitender Tomar. He said Kejriwal had promised in his election manifesto that if the AAP came back to power, the appointment of Jan Lokpal and Lokyukta will be done without delay, but even after being in power for over four months, the Kejriwal Government has not bothered to fill these posts.