On the directions of Jung, Chief Secretary K K Sharma sent an urgent fax to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday saying “Your kind presence is required in the NCT of Delhi to deal with emergent administrative matters.” Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, had flown to Finland on September 12 along with his officers, to study the education system of that country.
In response to the fax, Jain and Kapil Mishra rushed to LG Secretariat on Saturday morning at around 11.30 am to speak to Jung. The ministers waited outside the LG office and said that no appointment was sought to meet the LG since he had sent an “urgent” fax to the Deputy Chief Minister and they thought that Jung must have something important to talk about.
The LG office, however, denied the meeting citing there was no “prior appointment”. The ministers reportedly requested the officers in LG Secretariat to arrange the meeting with LG if anything was urgent and they were ready to wait for it.
“I requested the officers to arrange the meeting at any place and anytime as per the convenience of LG but was told that he was not in town and will return on Monday. We went to LG’s office today (Saturday) since he sent an urgent fax last (Friday) night to Manish Sisodia, but he wasn’t there as he doesn’t work on weekends. We called him too... he’s not working today and he doesn’t want to talk about work,” said Kapil Mishra.
He also took on the LG in a series of tweets and posted a hard-hitting letter reportedly written to LG in which he accused Jung of being influenced by reports of some news channels which are purportedly targeting the AAP government.
It’s pertinent to mention that on September 14, Mishra gave a call to all the MPs, MLAs, councillors, political parties, religious bodies and associations to unite and fight against mosquitoes. The same call was given by LG himself in a meeting when he asked all the stakeholders in the city to rise above “political considerations” at the time of ensuing crisis.
“Your reaction may benefit any television channel but it creates panic in the city. If anything was so urgent you could have called me and Satyendar Jain for discussion. As you are not in the city, even if Manish Sisodia comes immediately he could meet you only on Monday. What purpose was solved by asking Sisodia to come to Delhi within 24 hours,” said Mishra.
Meanwhile, Jain said a mass awareness campaign is being launched across the city on Sunday under which people have been asked to devote at least 30 minutes to check if there were stagnant water in their residential complexes and around it, to prevent mosquito-breeding.
“We appeal to people to devote at least half an hour time from their daily life and work towards this campaign. There are 42 lakh households in Delhi, and if all of you cooperate then we can together root out dengue and chikungunya from the city,” he said. At least 15 people have died due to chikungunya and 18 have succumbed to dengue this season. Over 1,700 cases of chikungunya have been reported in the national Capital while dengue has affected more than 1,100 people.