Chief Secretary held hostage, Congres protests water, power woes

A Congress delegation led by its Delhi unit chief Arvinder Singh Lovely Monday held Chief Secretary S.K. Srivastava hostage for half an hour at the Delhi Secretariat here over the issue of power and water crisis in the national capital, according to official sources.

The Congress leaders, including its all eight elected legislators and senior party leaders, held Srivastava hostage in the conference room of the Delhi Secretariat and did not allow him to go to his fifth-floor office. The Delhi Secretariat is located in the central Delhi.

According to the sources, it was at the intervention of other secretaries that the Congress leaders let Srivastava go and agreed to protest outside the government office premises.

Sources added that the leaders are demanding a written assurance from the chief secretary over the power outages and water crisis in the city.

The city is reeling under sizzlingly high temperatures, and the situation has been made worse by irregular power and water supply.