A day after the Supreme Court expressed concern over governance deficit in the city, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to resolve the
issues through dialogue, and also stating that he was ready “to walk an extra mile in this direction”.
The Chief Minister, however, expressed his concerns on the alleged repeated interference of Lt Governor Najeeb Jung in the day-to-day functioning of Delhi government.
“There are so many things which have happened in the past seven months that have never happened in twenty-three years of the democratic tradition in the National Capital Territory of Delhi,” said Kejriwal in his three-page letter to PM on Tuesday. The Chief Minister has also reminded the PM of four contentious issues between Centre and the state governments, which are: Lt Governor (LG) declaring Delhi government orders as void, issuing direct orders to officers, Ministry of Home Affairs declaring Delhi government's orders as ab initio void, and taking control of Anti-Corruption Branch from Delhi government.
“Never before has the LG declared the orders issued by the democratically elected government of Delhi as illegal and null and void. In the last six months, several orders of Delhi government have been declared void by LG for the first time,” he added in the letter. Kejriwal further alleged that LG, through an Executive order and a novel interpretation of old statutes and rules, deprived Delhi government of its primary tool to combat corruption.