‘Govts should ensure freedom for women’: Kejriwal raises Chandigarh stalking in speech

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Delhi government is working to bring revolution in education system. He also said that justice in cases of crimes against women should be swift.

Justice has to be certain and swift in order to tackle crime against women, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday, deploring “tendencies to shield” sons of politicians involved in such cases.

Arvind Kejriwal said governments should ensure freedom for women instead of imposing restrictions on them. (Sushil Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Kejriwal said governments should ensure freedom for women instead of imposing restrictions on them. A politician’s son, guilty of such crimes, should be awarded double the punishment as stipulated in statute books, he said.

“Son of a very influential leader was recently caught for crime against women. Another leader commented that women should not move out during the night. I wish to slap that leader,” Kejriwal said, adding that such politicians should instead keep their sons indoors if they cant keep them under ‘control’.

The comments, made by Kejriwal in a televised Independence Day speech, came against the backdrop of the Chandigarh stalking case involving the son of Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala.

“The most important thing in such cases is deterrence. There should be certainty and swiftness when it comes to punishment. Now when a politician’s son commits any such crime, the entire system comes together to shield him,” he said.

In his 14-minute-long address, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal described the system of contractual employment as ‘exploitative’ said that he would strive to abolish it in regular employment.

“There are two kinds of contractual labour. One who are engaged for few days in sectors like construction. And the second lot, who are hired in regular jobs and employed for 365 days. We will strive to do away with the contractual system in regular employment,” said Kejriwal while delivering his Independence Day speech at Chhatrasal Stadium.

“The contractual system is exploitative. Be it by private contractors or in government, whoever does it, its a crime... We will take steps abolish it,” he said, adding that despite the AAP government revising minimum wages by about 37 per cent last year, the contractual employee are yet to receive any benefits.

Regularisation of contractual employees has been one of the major pre-poll electoral promises of the Aam Aadmi Party government.

Besides appealing the opposition political parties to support the move, the chief minister also urged the lieutenant governor to “not create hurdle” in implementing the new system.

Drive against Dengue, Chikungunya

Speaking about the perennial problems of vector-borne diseases in the city post monsoon, the chief minister said that the Delhi government would come out with a detailed plan to check their spread.

Kejriwal also sought cooperation from the people in the campaign as they did in implementation of the odd-even scheme.

“In the next 10 days, we will come out with a detailed plan to tackle dengue and chikungunya in Delhi. There is a need to act on a war-footing against these diseases,” he said.