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NDMC meeting adjourned after ruckus
Arvind Kejriwal chaired the meeting in the absence of New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi. The meeting was adjourned after BJP members created a ruckus
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) saw heated scenes during its council meeting on Wednesday after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members accused chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of “political tourism and alliances” at a time when the Capital was flooded, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accused the BJP of turning the meeting into a “political battlefield”.
Amid the ruckus, Kejriwal, who was chairing the meeting in the absence of Union minister and New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi, adjourned the session for Thursday without any discussion on the listed matters.
An NDMC official explained that the council meetings are usually chaired by Lekhi, but in her absence, Kejriwal, the New Delhi legislator, chairs the sessions. If both are not present, the meetings are chaired by NDMC chairman Amit Yadav, a bureaucrat appointed by the central government.
At the start of Wednesday’s meeting, the BJP members of the council accused Kejriwal of remaining busy with “political tourism” while the city was flooded.
NDMC vice chairman and BJP leader Satish Upadhyay said his party members raised their voice about the troubles faced by New Delhi residents during the rains and subsequent floods in the second week of July.
“Members raised concerns over the delay in holding the apex meeting on flood control in Delhi, which played a significant role in worsening the rain and flood situation across Delhi as well as the New Delhi area. Timely desilting of drainage systems was not done, which increased the problems of floods in various areas of NDMC, and the overflow of sewers in MCD areas resulted in backwater flooding the New Delhi area, causing further hardship to the citizens of New Delhi area. VIP areas like Connaught Place, Bharti Nagar, Golf Link, Lodhi Road were also highly affected due to this mismanagement,” he said.
Council member Kuljeet Singh Chahal, also from BJP, alleged Kejriwal was busy attending alliance meetings with other political parties in Patna and Bengaluru at a time when Delhi was flooded. “NDMC organised more than 70 suvidha camps in its area, but Kejriwal, as the area’s representative, has not participated in any camp,” he said.
The AAP hit back, alleging that the BJP members did not allow Kejriwal to conduct the session.
In its official response, the AAP said that the “CM kept pleading them (BJP members) to allow the meeting to be conducted”, but the BJP members had come prepared to “not let the meeting happen”.
“It is very unfortunate that BJP does not have any interest in the welfare of people living in NDMC area. There were many important items on the agenda for today’s meeting. But BJP members raised issues of women atrocities in Rajasthan, surgical strikes… Are these issues related to the welfare of the people of NDMC? No. This was cheap and dirty politics. All BJP members led by Kuldeep Chahal kept shouting continuously during the meeting and did not let even a single agenda to be discussed. Left with no other option, CM had to adjourn the meeting… The CM kept pleading with them to allow the meeting to be conducted. However, they had come prepared that they wouldn’t let the meeting happen,” the AAP statement said.
