New Delhi, Oct 5, 2024
Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, accompanied by a delegation of AAP and BJP MLAs, reached L-G V. K. Saxsena’s house on Saturday with a resolution seeking reinstatement of marshals in the city buses.
She said that though L-G has all the rights to reinstate the marshals, Delhi BJP Vijeyender Gupta insisted the Delhi government to pass a resolution and seek approval.
“We convened an emergency cabinet meeting at the secretariat and passed the resolution on the issue. Hope that the L-G will pass it,” she said.
Delhi Urban Development Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj claimed: “We managed to bring the BJP leaders here as after getting the resolution passed over the issue, they were not agreeing to accompany us to the L-G house.”
He expressed disappointment that only the chief minister and BJP MLAs were allowed by the L-G inside the house while dozens of AAP MLAs and three ministers were not allowed.
AAP MLA Dilip Pandey cried foul saying, “The BJP MLAs today too were backtracking from their promise of accompanying the AAP delegation to the L-G house.”
The BJP MLAs accompanied the delegation after requests from AAP leaders and bus marshals.
Earlier, the BJP leaders had requested a meeting with Chief Minister Atishi to discuss the issue. However, heated arguments ensued between both sides, after which they refused to accompany them.
In a video of the meeting, bus marshals can be seen pleading with a BJP leader for their reinstatement who said they wanted to protect their jobs.
Earlier, Saurabh Bhardwaj accused the BJP of betraying thousands of city bus marshals.
He said: “The BJP has deceived these 10,000 poor people. They had promised to restore their jobs and all of their seven MLAs had vowed to march to the Lieutenant Governor’s house. However, they made a U-turn and refused to accompany the AAP delegation. It is part of their conspiracy to have these bus marshals removed in the first place. That’s why they don’t want them reinstated.”
A sea of bus marshals held a protest near the residence of Delhi LG on Thursday, demanding the restoration of their jobs. The protest was attended by Delhi Cabinet Ministers Saurabh Bhardwaj, Imran Hussain and Mukesh Ahlawat, along with other AAP MLAs.(Agency)
