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Govt trying to find patterns in city’s killer blaze incidents: Kejriwal
New Delhi
New Delhi
The Delhi government will try and find “patterns” from its magisterial enquiries that have been initiated into the fatal fire incidents in the city, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday, while addressing a town hall in west Delhi’s Janakpuri.
At the town hall, Kejriwal also announced that the government is likely to notify by next week the revised circle rates for agriculture lands in the city.
On December 8, a massive fire swept through an illegal factory in north Delhi’s Anaj Mandi neighbourhood claimed 45 lives. On January 2, a fire fighter was killed in the line of duty when a portion of a building collapsed following an explosion after a fire incident in west Delhi’s Peeragarhi area. In both cases, the Delhi government has ordered magisterial enquiries but the reports are awaited.
“We are concerned over the fire incidents. We are waiting for the magisterial enquiry reports. Our aim will be to study patterns in the incidents and do our best to work on those, if any, to ensure such incidents are not repeated in the future,” said Kejriwal, responding to a question from the audience.
Responding to another query on increasing circle rate for agricultural lands, the chief minister said that the recently announced new circle rate scheme has got the approval of Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is likely to notify the revised rates by next week. “I am thankful to the L-G for this,” he said.
On December 18, Kejriwal had announced an increase in the circle rates of agricultural land in the city from a uniform rate of Rs 53 lakh per acre to between Rs 2.25 crore and Rs 5 crore per acre, depending on the location, attributing the announcement to longstanding demands of the farmers in the city.
Kejriwal, who is the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), further said that his party will retain its demand of full statehood for Delhi in its manifesto for the upcoming assembly elections in Delhi.
The AAP had won the 2015 assembly elections in the city with a whopping majority of 67 of 70 seats. In 2019, it contested all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi with full statehood as the primary poll plank, but lost all of them to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was pushed down to the third position by the Congress in terms of vote share.
The chief minister also reiterated his opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which expedites citizenship process for six communities and excludes Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Aghanistan. He said, “What if Pakistan sends its spies to India by exploiting this law?”
The venue for Saturday’s townhall was an outdoor space at Dilli Haat in Janakpuri. The meeting was attended by at least a thousand people – including men, women, youngsters and elderly residents. It started with Kejriwal highlighting his party’s achievements in the past five years through a “report card” – copies of which were distributed among the visitors. He then went on to take questions from the audience.
Saturday was the fifth in a series of seven town halls that the AAP is organising.
During the meeting, Kejriwal also announced that his government will inaugurate 150 mohalla clinics in the city on Sunday, which would take the total number of functional units of the primary health care service to around 450.
He also vouched to resolve the parking related issues in the city, reduce air pollution levels and clean the Yamuna in next years if his party won the upcoming Assembly polls.
