Following the Delhi High Court's ruling, a top MCD official stated that the process of supplying notebooks, stationery, school bags, and uniforms is now underway, with an estimated 650,000 kids to benefit.
Sanjay Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP and senior AAP leader, stated on Monday that Arvind Kejriwal will continue to serve as Delhi's chief minister. This comes after the Delhi High Court ruled in the MCD textbook case that a chief minister should not be placed under incommunicado for an indefinite amount of time in the interest of the public and the nation. Regarding the matter of the absence of a standing committee, he held the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and lieutenant governor VK Saxena accountable for interfering with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD) business.
The LG secretariat opted not to respond to comments made by the AAP. The BJP claimed that the order was a clear indication from the courts that the chief minister should step down in the interest of the public, calling it a dark day in the history of Delhi.
Following the Delhi High Court's ruling, a top MCD official stated that the process of supplying notebooks, stationery, school bags, and uniforms is now underway, with an estimated 650,000 kids to benefit. "We anticipate paying about ₹70 crore to distribute these benefits. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, stated, "Every student would receive a subsidy of approximately ₹1,100. We will also be hosting camps for the enrollment of students who do not have bank accounts so that subsidy may be directly transferred to them.
The distribution process will be finished in the next 15 to 20 days, according to the MCD official. The official stated that while the textbooks for classes 4 and 5 are still the same, the NCERT textbooks for classes 1 through 3 have been modified, and new volumes are currently being ordered. "The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is providing the textbooks." As soon as the next batch of books arrives, we will begin distribution. The official continued, "Every action required to guarantee adherence to the high court judgment is being implemented.
“Regarding if the order will assist in completing other unfinished projects because the standing committee was not formed, the official stated that the order will be lawfully examined by the corporation's law department.”
Sanjay Singh said at a news conference: “It is the decision of people of Delhi and its MLAs that Arvind Kejriwal is the chief minister, was the chief minister and will remain the chief minister. You will remember that we had conducted a survey in this matter in entire Delhi and sought opinion from people. All of them also unanimously said that Kejriwal was, is and will remain the Chief Minister. with great respect to the court...not one, but three petitions were filed in the High Court demanding the resignation of Shri Arvind Kejriwal. The same High Court said that Arvind Kejriwal does not need to resign.”
He added: “CM’s decision not to resign is a decision to exercise his rights democratically against the dictatorship of the central government and the BJP Government. In a democracy, it is the MLAs who decide who will remain the Chief Minister and who not; the Assembly decides. And in the last six months, three times the MLAs have accepted him as their leader and have decided that the Delhi government will run under his leadership and a proposal has been passed that even if he (Arvind Kejriwal) goes to jail, the government will be run from jail.”
He stated that even in the event that Arvind Kejriwal was imprisoned, the government would continue to function from his cell, according to a previous assembly proposal that has garnered support over the course of the last six months. “The work of the people of Delhi has neither been disrupted before, nor is it being disrupted now. All our ministers are continuously working. They meet the CM and do further work as per his instructions,” he said.
Singh claimed that the LG had unilaterally appointed BJP leaders as aldermen, which had an impact on the MCD's operations. “When the matter reached the Supreme Court, the court banned the alderman’s right to vote, while the case of these nominations is pending. The work is being affected due to the non-constitution of the standing committee in the MCD,” Singh said.
The MCD's purse strings are controlled by the 18-member standing committee, whose creation has been stalled for the past year due to political and legal disputes over the selection of the corporation's nominated members, or "aldermen," for more than a year and a half. In May of last year, the Supreme Court decided not to rule on the aldermen problem.
Singh said that with respect to the high court’s observations, “Kejriwal is a true patriot” and that no one could question his patriotism or honesty. “There has been a political conspiracy against him... Arvind Kejriwal is not greedy for a post. When it comes to principles, Kejriwal is the person who resigned from the post of chief minister in his 49-day government,” he said.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said: “Delhi high court not only reprimanded the Delhi government and the Delhi municipal corporation for the second time in three days, but also criticized chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Saurabh Bharadwaj for their conduct regarding the irregularities in municipal schools. The observation of this is a message that the chief minister of Delhi should resign in public interest.”
The people of Delhi wanted to know why Sanjay Singh, if the administration was functioning properly, the government could not give the municipal commissioner the authority to authorize expenditures beyond ₹5 crore, according to Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor. “They are anarchic by nature and they wish to run the administration on their whims, ignoring constitutional norms. There is no ideological reason behind the AAP not allowing a standing committee election.”
