Delhi govt calls for emergency session on MHA notification

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The Keriwal led Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi has called for a two-day emergency session of the Delhi assembly from Tuesday to discuss the Home Ministry’s notification giving absolute powers to the Lieutenant Governor to appoint bureaucrats and clarifying that he need not “consult” the chief minister on subjects like police and public order.

The decision was taken today during a cabinet meeting chaired by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The Assembly session was originally scheduled for June.

Today, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju hit back saying the AAP leader (Kejriwal) only wants “drama” while the NDA government believes in good governance.

“It’s not worth responding to Kejriwal who just wants drama. We don’t believe in drama but in governance,” Mr Rijiju told reporters.

Earlier on Friday, Kejriwal accused the NDA Government at the Centre of trying to run Delhi through the backdoor, hours after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued a notification backing Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung in his tussle over power sharing with the AAP Government.

The Ministry of Home Affairs amended a 1998 notification yesterday and said that according to the Constitution L-G was the “administrative head” of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

The notification also made it clear that since bureaucrats and police officers working in the Delhi government belong to central cadres like AGMU, IPS, DANICS and DANIPS, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Delhi government had no jurisdiction on them. This notification comes as a severe blow to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s anti-corruption drive, since they will no longer be able to book these officials facing charges of corruption.

The gazette notification supercedes the one in 1998, issued by the then Home Minister LK Advani also says that legislative assembly of Delhi has no “executive powers” and the order of L-G will be final when it came to matters of transfers and postings. It was on the issue of appointment of an interim chief secretary Shakuntala Gamlin that the L-G office and Delhi government had a heated controversy.

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