Headlines
Modi government wants to trip us: Kejriwal
New Delhi, May 17
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal on Sunday attacked the Narendra Modi government over the row
related to a top Delhi official, saying her appointment was meant to
trip his government.
Addressing thousands of auto-rickshaw
drivers here, Kerjriwal touched upon the controversy involving chief
secretary in-charge Shakuntala Gamlin but didn't take her name.
Gamlin's
appointment by Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung has come under scathing attack
from the AAP leader. Jung has refused back off, and the central
government has accused Kejriwal of character assassinating the official.
"We
opposed Secretary's (Gamlin) appointment but the Narendra Modi-led BJP
government made her the acting chief secretary of Delhi," he said. "The
Modi government wants to fail us."
Kejriwal accused the officer of siding with power distribution companies.
He
said when his Aam Aadmi Party formed a government in Delhi in February,
a power department secretary asked the power minister to sign a paper
which she claimed to be a comfort letter for a loan being taken by the
power companies from banks.
"When our minister looked into it, he
found out the paper was not a comfort letter but a guarantee towards
Rs.11,000 crore loan being taken by Delhi power companies," Kejriwal
said.
"That secretary had come to get that guarantee paper signed
for the loan. She wanted us to back the power companies and burden the
common man.
"It was the wisdom of our minister that he did not
sign that guarantee paper. Otherwise, if the power companies had failed
to repay the loan, the residents of Delhi would have to bear the burden
as the electricity tariff would have increased two-to-three times," he
added.
Jung on May 15 gave Gamlin the additional charge of chief
secretary of Delhi since incumbent Chief Secretary K.K. Sharma is in the
US.