Kejriwal seeks political parties' view on full statehood to Delhi

Delhi, Jul 4: After seeking suggestions from people on his government's draft bill on full statehood to Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written to all political parties including BJP, Congress, BSP and sought their views on the issue.

The Chief Minister has written to Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay, DPCC chief Ajay Maken, Aam Aadmi Party state convener Dilip Pandey and state unit heads of BSP and other political parties on full statehood to Delhi.

In May, the Kejriwal government had released the draft bill on full statehood to the national capital seeking to bring police, land, municipal corporations and bureaucracy under its control, and invited suggestions from the public till June 30.

"Government has received several suggestions from people on the issue. Now, Chief Minister has written to state-unit heads of political parties - Congress, AAP, BJP, BSP and others - seeking their views on full statehood to Delhi," said a senior government official.

According to'The State of Delhi Bill 2016', New Delhi (NDMC) and Delhi Cantonment areas will be kept out of the jurisdiction of the proposed Delhi state.

The term Lt Governor will be replaced with 'Governor'. While releasing the draft bill, the CM had said that all-party meeting would be held on the issue and urged rivals BJP and Congress to "rise above differences" and went on to quote from old manifestos of BJP wherein the party had promised full statehood.

"The BJP has struggled the most on the issue. They have consistently raised it. We are merely taking their resolve forward by inviting public opinion on this draft," Kejriwal had also said when asked about the AAP's action plan if the draft was rejected by the Centre.

He had said that he would write letters and also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president Amit Shah and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to garner support for draft bill.

PTI