He was to speak on city’s fight against pollution at C-40 summit
After the Ministry of External Affairs “refused” political clearance to his visit, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will not be able to attend the C-40 Climate Summit in Denmark, official sources confirmed.
The CM was expected to speak at the summit on his Government’s effort in lowering air pollution in Delhi and present the set of initiatives taken by the AAP dispensation that led to the 25 per cent reduction in air pollution.
Terming the Centre’s decision to withhold the clearance “unfortunate”, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh on Tuesday said it would affect India’s image.
He also wondered why the Centre was “so much” angry with the AAP Government. Kejriwal was to lead an eight-member delegation for the summit slated to begin on October 9 and end on October 12.
Singh said Kejriwal was not going on a vacation but to tell the world how Delhi managed to reduce its air pollution by over 25 per cent through its schemes like odd-even.
Singh said the Centre’s decision will “send a wrong message in the international community”. “What will the people think about how our federal structure works? Why is there so much anger against us from the Centre?,” he said.
The MEA, however, gave clearance to West Bengal Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim, claimed sources.
In response to media query over Kejriwal’s proposed visit to Denmark, the MEA last week had said a decision on the issue is taken based on multiple inputs. “I do not answer query specific to political clearance. And if you understand how it functions, we get hundreds of requests for political clearances every month from Ministries, secretaries, bureaucrats. A decision is based on multiple inputs,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said.
“Some of the inputs we get from the mission and it take into account the nature of the event where the person is going to participate. It takes into account the level of participation from other countries and also the kind of invitation that is extended,” he had added.
