Centre misled Parliament on Delhi statehood demand: AAP

Delhi's ruling AAP on Tuesday hit out at the Centre for misleading Parliament about its demand for Delhi's full statehood by claiming that the Home Ministry has received no such request from the city government.

AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that the Centre "lied about being unaware" of any statehood demand by the Aam Aadmi government.

In Parliament, Professor K.V Thomas had asked Minister of Home affairs three questions. First, is there a demand for statehood to Delhi; second, if so, what is the policy of the Central government; and third, the time by which a decision may be taken.

To this, Bharadwaj said, the Minister of Home Affairs "lied" because "they (BJP) have themselves been demanding full statehood for the last 70 years and now, even after they have a majority in the Lok Sabha, they are sitting over the matter."

Bharadwaj, who is MLA from Greater Kailash, said a special session of the Delhi assembly had demanded full statehood. "The proposal was not a private Bill, it was the Delhi government's resolution," he said.

"Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had made this proposal. The resolution was passed and sent to the Central government," he said.

Bharadwaj further said that on June 11, 2018, a letter about Delhi's full statehood was sent to the Home Ministry from the Delhi Assembly and a copy of that letter was sent to the Lt Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

In view of this, it was clear that the reply given in the Lok Sabha amounted to "cheating the people of Delhi," he said.

--IANS

Sd/prs/sed