Congress today demanded that Delhi government pay a Rs 1 crore compensation and give a permanent job to the next of kin of the DTC driver who died after being thrashed in a road rage incident at Mundka.
"The DTC bus driver's family should be given Rs 1 crore as compensation and his next of his kin should be given a permanent job in DTC," the chief spokesperson of Congress's Delhi unit, Sharmistha Mukherjee, said at a press conference here.
"The entire incident is deplorable," she added.
A 42-year-old DTC bus driver, Ashok Kumar, was yesterday beaten to death in broad daylight allegedly by a youth after his bus grazed the latter's motorbike in the Mundka area of west Delhi.
Meanwhile, on the issue of a circular sent out by Delhi government which threatens action against the media for any defamatory news, Congress said that the move was against the principles of freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution.
"It is an authoritarian act. We strongly condemn it," Sharmistha, who is the daughter of President Pranab Mukherjee, said as she launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
"The circular is a reminder of draconian acts like the Vernacular Press Act 1878, Indian Press Act 1910, Indian Press Act 1931. The only difference is that these Acts were in operation during colonial rule, but we are now living in the 21st century," she said.
Delhi Congress President Ajay Maken has written to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung expressing strong objection to the circular issued by the AAP government and sought the latter's intervention in this regard.
"The Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression guaranteed by the Constitution empowers the electors to assess and criticise shortcomings and inefficiency if we politicians don't perform after being voted to power. AAP itself has been a major critic of many other political parties and their leaders," Maken told Jung.
In a separate announcement, Sharmistha said that Congress's communication department has set up an Urdu cell for better coordination with the Urdu media.
