AAP ministers, L-G office spar over order to call back Sisodia

NEW DELHI: Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia will return on Sunday as scheduled, notwithstanding lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung’s direction to cut short his

NEW DELHI: Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia will return on Sunday as scheduled, notwithstanding lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung’s direction to cut short his Finland visit and return immediately in the wake of the chikungunya outbreak.

HT Image

Sisodia is on an official educational tour with senior education department officials since September 13. Jung’ s direction to Sisodia on Friday night to return triggered a tussle between the Kejriwal government and the L-G office.

Following Jung’s directive, health minister Satyendar Jain and water minister Kapil Mishra went to meet the L-G at his office on Saturday morning to discuss the health crisis. But they could not meet him as he was not present. The ministers stayed put at the L-G office for around 20 minutes before they met his principal secretary.

Mishra later alleged Jung had “refused” to meet him and the health minister. The L-G office refuted the charges, saying the Delhi government ministers were ‘politicising the issue’.

“We have been told that the L-G is on leave today. How can he be on leave when Delhi is facing a health crisis. We have come to meet him following his fax to Manish Sisodia, asking him to return to Delhi from Finland immediately,” Mishra told reporters outside the L-G office.

Jain referred to Jung’s 10-day travel to the US earlier this month when the city was witnessing rising cases of dengue and chikungunya and wondered why he did not cut short his visit “even by one hour”.

Jung had returned to Delhi from the US earlier this week.

The L-G’s office retorted that it was operational on all seven days of the week and the ministers did not seek an appointment.

“Secretary to Lt. Governor met the ministers since the Lt. Governor’s office is operational on all days of the week. However, they neither submitted any letter nor gave any representation to the Lt. Governor,” the L-G office said in a statement.

“It is regrettable that at a time when Delhi is facing such a serious public health crisis, the elected government is choosing to politicise the issue instead of providing succour to the public. The Lt. Governor’s office is keeping a close watch on the health situation in Delhi and is getting regular updates on the situation from the chief secretary and secretary (H & FW), GNCTD,” it added.

Mishra countered that since Delhi was grappling with dengue and chikungunya, they did not wait for an appointment to meet Jung.

“We thought perhaps Jung Saheb has found some very good idea to fight the diseases that he wanted to share with Sisodia. So we came running to meet him as we are working on Saturday and Sunday also.”