KEJRIWAL RAKES UP FULL STATEHOOD ISSUE FOR DELHI TO DIVERT THE ATTENTION OF THE PEOPLE FROM THE FAILURE OF THE SECOND ODD-EVEN SCHEME—AJAY MAKEN.
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NEW DELHI, April 30—Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Shri Ajay Maken said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was trying to hoodwink the people of Delhi on the issue of full Statehood to Delhi. He said the power to make amendments in the Constitution was vested only with Parliament and the Delhi Government cannot pass any Bill for full Statehood for Delhi. He said for this, the Delhi Assembly has to pass a resolution and forward it to the Central Government. Shri Maken said it was very strange that though the Kejriwal Government has been in power for 15 months now, and if it was serious about full Statehood for Delhi, it should have written to the Central Government about full Statehood for Delhi much earlier, instead of dusting out the issue now.
Addressing a press conference at the DPCC office, Rajiv Bhawan here today, Shri Ajay Maken, referring to Kejriwal’s statement that the AAP Government has passed a Bill on the full Statehood for Delhi and would put it in the public domain to seek the opinion of the public 15 months after coming to power, said it was yet another ploy by Kejriwal to mislead the people of Delhi as whenever he got caught on some issues, he would come up with some new proposal to divert the attention of the people. It may be recalled when the AAP Government hiked the salary of the MLAs by 400 per cent and which attracted wide-spread criticism, Kejriwal brought up the Jan Lokpal Bill, and when the weak and Government-controlled Jan Lokpal was widely slammed, Kejriwal came up with the odd-even scheme. And when the second odd-even scheme was heading towards a total failure, to divert the attention of the people, he has pulled out the full Statehood card by putting it on public domain to seek people’s opinion.Chief spokesperson Smt. Sharmistha Mukherjee was also present at the press conference.
Shri Ajay Maken said under Article 239 AA of the Constitution of India, the NCT of Delhi Act was made in 1991, and to run this Act, the Transaction of Business Rules were framed and if these business rules are taking away the powers of the Delhi Act, in that case the Delhi government should approach the Committee on Delegated Legislation for making changes in the said business rules, meaning thereby that only the committee on Delegated Legislation has the power to make changes in the said business rules.
Shri Maken said the present administrative setup in Delhi was the best in the country compared to any other mega city in the country as Delhi, under the rule of the Congress Government for 15 years, was made the best on the development index, whether it was regarding roads, flyovers, Delhi metro, greenery, health care and education.
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