Kejriwal to PM Modi: Would not go to LG if had powers like Sheila Dikshit

Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he would not have gone to the Lt. Governors doorstep to get the IAS officers undeclared strike called off had he wielded powers like his predecessor Sheila Dikshit.

In a letter to Modi, Kejriwal pointed out that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, had promised full statehood to Delhi but instead it has divested the Delhi government of all powers to transfer, suspend or take any action against the erring officers and has crippled the state government.

"The citizens of Delhi believed you and voted for you en masse, giving you all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the state. But in return you did not leave Delhi with even 10 per cent of statehood.

"You give us back the powers that Sheila Dikshit had as the Chief Minister of Delhi (which you divested the Delhi government of through an order in 2015) and we would not come to you to complaining about the IAS officers' strike. We ourselves would sort that out. Today you have all the powers and we (AAP government) have all the responsibilities. How will it work?" Kejriwal said in the letter.

He claimed that his government did not have "even 10 per cent" of the powers that the previous Delhi governments had. Kejriwal, who ended his sit in at the Raj Niwas on Tuesday after nine days, alleged in the letter that the IAS officers' undeclared strike was being stage managed from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

"The moment an IAS officer tries to do good work, either you get him transferred or implicate him in false cases. All the officers in Delhi administration are scared of you. Your aim is to scuttle the work of the AAP's Delhi government," he claimed.

He said that "nobody in the world would believe" that the Lt Governor was persistently denying to meet the elected representatives on his own and that "everybody believes" it was being done at the Centre's behest.

Terming it tragic that a Prime Minister was "himself obstructing" the development of a region of his own country, he said: "We again request you that let us work for the sake of people of Delhi."

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