New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday accused Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena of threatening officials to stop various initiatives of the city government, including the bus marshal scheme.
There was no immediate response from the Lieutenant Governor’s office on the Chief Minister’s claim.
Speaking in the Delhi Assembly on the issue of removing civil defense volunteers deployed as bus marshals in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and cluster buses, Kejriwal said the scheme ran smoothly from 2015 to 2022.
“We formed the government in 2015 with the promise of ensuring women’s safety. We installed CCTV cameras in five years, installed street lights in dark areas and installed CCTV cameras in buses, installed panic buttons and deployed bus marshals. There are many such examples of good work by bus marshals,” the Chief Minister said.
He said the bus marshal scheme worked well for eight years but in 2023, officials started raising objections saying that civil defense volunteers could not serve as marshals.
“The Lieutenant Governor threatened the officials to stop the bus marshal plan. The Lieutenant Governor questioned the deployment of marshals, saying there were CCTV cameras and panic buttons,” Kejriwal alleged.
He also accused the BJP of shedding “crocodile tears” on the issue and said he was ready to sign any paper for the reinstatement of the bus marshals.
Kejriwal also talked about Saxena’s open letter on the one-time settlement scheme for allegedly inflated water bills.
He said, “The language of LG’s letter was dirty.” He said that such language should not be used.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
