After seeking suggestions from people on his Government’s draft Bill on full statehood to Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written to all political parties including the BJP, the Congress, the BSP and sought their views on the issue.
The Chief Minister has written to Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay, Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken, Aam Aadmi Party state convener Dilip Pandey and State unit heads of the BSP and other political parties on full statehood to Delhi.
In May, the Kejriwal Government had released the draft Bill seeking to bring police, land, municipal corporations and bureaucracy under its control, and invited suggestions from the public till June 30.
“The Government has received several suggestions from people on the issue. Now, the Chief Minister has written to State-unit heads of political parties - the Congress, the AAP, the BJP, the BSP and others - seeking their views on full statehood to Delhi,” said a senior Government official.
According to the draft legislation placed on Government’s website for public comments, besides the NDMC, the Delhi Cantonment area will be kept out of the jurisdiction of the proposed Delhi State. Special provisions have been made for the NDMC. For the New Delhi area, Parliament will have exclusive legislative and executive powers on matters relating to public order, police, local Government and land. This is necessary to address the requirement of the special status as National Capital Territory, it said. The Bill says the term “lt-Governor” will be replaced with “Governor”. In the Bill, the city Government has advocated the creation of a separate official cadre for the State. Besides, the High Court for the existing National Capital Territory will be called the ‘High Court of Delhi, it States. Also, the Bill states that all consequential amendments to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957, the Delhi Development Act 1957, the Delhi Police Act 1978 and other statutes passed by Parliament in respect of matters enumerated in the State list in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution will be carried out by the legislative Assembly of the State of Delhi.
In the Bill, the Delhi Police will be made accountable to the elected Government of Delhi while the Delhi Development Authority and Municipal Corporations of Delhi will also become fully accountable to the people of Delhi. Embassy areas and the Central Government are in the NDMC zone of the city and in view of this, the NDMC area may have separate police.
While releasing the draft Bill, the Chief Minister had said that all-party meeting would be held on the issue and urged the Opposition BJP and Congress to “rise above differences” and went on to quote from old manifestos of BJP wherein the party had promised full statehood. “The BJP has struggled the most on the issue. They have consistently raised it. We are merely taking their resolve forward by inviting public opinion on this draft,” Kejriwal had also said when asked about the AAP’s action plan if the draft was rejected by the Central Government.
He had said that he would write letters and also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president Amit Shah and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to garner support for draft Bill.