‘Was Told, Your Office Will Be Locked’: Swati Maliwal

NEW DELHI: In the blazing row between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, the newly appointed chief of the Delhi Commission for Women has alleged that she was told not to come to office on Mr Jung’s orders. “The DCW called me and told me a lock would be put on the office,” said Swati Maliwal.

Sources in the Lieutenant Governor’s office have denied making any call to the DCW or Ms Maliwal.

Ms Maliwal this morning claimed that she had been trying to meet the Lieutenant Governor for three days but was still waiting. “The LG’s office denied that they had called the DCW office. Shocking. Why did the DCW office lie to me? Why did they remove my name plates? Took away the files and asked me not to come?” she said in tweets.

Ms Maliwal’s appointment by Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government as the women’s panel chief has been rejected by Najeeb Jung, whose office said in a sharp letter that the “constitutionally valid and consistent definition of ‘Government’ is the Lieutenant Governor.”

The letter made it clear that the appointment of Ms Maliwal, 30, a social activist and wife of an AAP leader, was “in breach of rules and procedures” and “had no legal sanctity”.

Ms Maliwal, who took charge on Monday, has started work despite the raging conflict. She has taken up the killing of a 19-year-old girl who was stabbed multiple times at a west Delhi colony, allegedly for protesting against harassment by a neighbor. Arvind Kejriwal has taken up the case as the centre point of his demand for full control of Delhi Police, which currently reports to the central government.

Ms Maliwal succeeded Barkha Singh, a Congress functionary who had repeated run-ins with the Kejriwal government as well as two AAP leaders – Kumar Vishwas and Somnath Bharti.

The letter cancelling her appointment has escalated the bitter turf war between the AAP government and Mr Jung, who represents the Centre in Delhi.

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Source:Ndtv