New Delhi : Delhi government officials held a meeting of a committee on installation of CCTVs in the city and would continue doing so despite Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia declaring that the committee formed by the Central government-appointed Lt. Governor Anil Baijal was “unconstitutional and void”.
Sisodia on Thursday termed the committee as “illegal and unconstitutional” while Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Satyendar Jain wrote to the Lt. Governor asking him to “stay away from the project”.
Lt. Governor-appointed head of the committee, Home Department Principal Secretary Manoj Parida, told IANS that “they would go ahead with the meetings” and that another meeting would be held next week.
Jain also wrote to Parida on Friday, asking him not to go ahead with the meetings of the committee, Parida said.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing Baijal of interfering in his government’s functioning and urged Modi to order Baijal to allow implementation of the CCTV project.
Meanwhile, Congress Delhi unit President Ajay Maken on Friday accused the AAP government of compromising national security by awarding a contract to install CCTVs here to a Chinese firm, even as the AAP claimed that efforts were on to halt the project.
Maken also sought Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation and warned of a protest on Sunday if he did not do so.
“The Aam Aadmi Party government has compromised national security for kickbacks in the installation of closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) in Delhi by awarding the contract to Chinese public sector undertaking Hikvision, in which Chinese government has 58 per cent share, through BEL (Bharat Electronics Ltd) by making it a vendor of BEL. It is an open-and-shut case of corruption and compromises national security,” the Congress leader claimed.
He said his party will approach the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Central Vigilance Commission and the courts, if needed, for a thorough inquiry into the “CCTV scam”.
“An inquiry will also be sought as to how an Indian PSU BEL, which comes under the Defence Ministry, included Chinese Hikvision as its vendor company,” Maken said.
In response, senior AAP leader Gopal Rai alleged that efforts were on to halt the CCTV installation and urged the central government, the Prime Minister and Maken to “not play with the issue of women’s safety”.