Endorsing the demand for full statehood for Delhi, which was raised through MLA Mukesh Sharma and a resolution passed in the Assembly on Thursday, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit said that she did not want any administrative order diluting constitutional powers of the city government. Strongly replying to the motion, Ms Dikshit
said that the constitutional head of the state should not interfere in matters which were within the purview of the Cabinet. The resolutions for full statehood have been passed earlier too but have not been implemented so far.
The strongly-worded reply of the chief minister came in the backdrop of the recent controversy between her and Delhi lieutenant governor Tejendra Khanna on the issue circle rates of properties, where the L-G had twice sent the file to the Delhi Cabinet seeking certain modifications, while the latter had returned the same without making any changes.
Maintaining that she never interfered in the functioning of the DDA, of which the L-G is the chairman, Ms Dikshit said in her reply that when the Lalita Park building collapse occurred nobody from the DDA and MCD was visible on the spot and everything was done by the government. She demanded that the multiplicity of authority had to end as the people expected the government to deliver.
She even went on to say that if interferences were allowed then there was no need for having an Assembly. “Why we need ministers, why we need government? Dissolve them,” Ms Dikshit said, adding that the government could not work with irritants.