Senior AAP leader and Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti on Sunday said the BJP is adopting new tactics every day to defame the AAP-ruled Municipal Corporation of Delhi. In the latest incident that took place on Saturday night, an MCD employee was threatened with a pistol by some goons following the truck that dumped garbage near Aurobindo College, just 50 metres away from the Malviya Nagar Police Station. He said that if the BJP and the Lieutenant Governor under whom the Delhi Police comes have no hand in dumping garbage, then they should get these criminals nabbed. Or else, they will be considered complicit in the matter, added Somnath Bharti.
Addressing a press conference here today, Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti said the dream of Shri Arvind Kejriwal is to make Delhi the cleanest city of the world through MCD. We are gradually moving in the direction of realising that dream. However, the BJP and other parties are hatching conspiracy to make our project of making Delhi clean under Arvind Kejriwal’s leadership.
Somnath Bharti said on December 7, 2022, the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in MCD. All three councillors of AAP got elected under my assembly constituency. Arvind Kejriwal promised to make Delhi the cleanest city and we started working in the direction. But we are seeing that the BJP is putting hurdles in making Delhi the cleanest city because they feel “we are not in power, we will not let you make Delhi cleanest”.
He said dumps of garbage and debris can be seen in many areas under Malviya Nagar constituency. We were shocked who is doing all this. People started saying that on Arvind Kejriwal’s instance, my instance they voted to elect AAP councillors and people started questioning the dream of making Delhi clean.
Somnath Bharti said he along with the three councillors went to the Deputy Commissioner, MCD and urged him to ensure supervision of the sites where garbage and debris are dumped, and he obliged us.
“I, along with the three councillors under Malviya Nagar Assembly segment, are fully committed to realising the dream of Arvind Kejriwal. We are working to ensure that there is no corruption, no waterlogging and cleanliness is maintained. We prepared a list of to-do thinks that included ensuring sanitation in the area and submitted it on December 19, 2022 to the Deputy Commissioner, MCD, who fully cooperated with us. He deputed MCD officials on the spots where garbage and debris are dumped,” said the senior AAP leader.
Somnath Bharti said but the recent example of insanitation is shocking. Last night I received a call from the Executive Engineer, MCD at midnight that a truck has been unloading debris near Aurobindo College, which is hardly 50 metres away from the Malviya Nagar Police Station on the MMTC Road. The MCD official on duty, who resisted the move was threatened with a knife and pistol by the people who got off two cars moving behind the truck full of debris. I rushed to the spot and found the MCD official shivering with fear. It was absolutely shocking as the site is hardly 50 metres away from the Malviya Nagar Police Station.
“How is it possible in the national capital that an employee of the MCD is stopped from doing his duty by goons carrying arms at a spot that is hardly 50 metre away from the police station,” he said.
Somnath Bharti said it has been noticed that the BJP and some other political parties are not happy with the AAP ruling the MCD and have been time and again trying to disrupt the functioning of the MCD. “For political reasons, ever since AAP has come to power in MCD, the BJP and the Congress decided to put hurdles in the functioning of the municipal body,” he said.
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Somnath Bharti said I, along with the three councillors, want to urge the BJP and other political parties that maintaining cleanliness in Delhi is the duty of all of us and let MCD officials do their work. I have also told the police to scan the CCTV footage and find out how an MCD official can be intimidated in the national capital by armed goons just 50 metres away from the police station to stop him from discharging his duty.
“These dirty tricks do not behove you and are not good for democracy. You (BJP) had your MPs for the last 10 years; you have police under you, strengthen it so that such people are afraid of police. The LG must see that the police that report to him are unable to ensure security of the government officials, leave along the common man,” said the Malviya Nagar MLA.
Somnath Bharti said as the Delhi Police come directly under the LG and the BJP, they must book the culprits otherwise I find it hard to believe that they are not complicit in it. “Because it has been your intention that we will not let the AAP function in the MCD. So, the BJP-ruled police must find out the truck, the two cars and the goons. Otherwise, we will consider it that it was your conspiracy to not let the promise made by Shri Arvind Kejriwal to the people of Delhi be fulfilled,” he concluded.
Somnath Bharti tweeted on ‘X’ at 1.53 am on Sunday: “From last 2 years, politically motivated people have been dumping Malwa in open to trouble me and to defame AAP since we came in MCD. I have been demanding that MCD should deploy staff to catch hold of these troublemakers. Today such a truck stopped followed by two cars escorting the truck and when the MCD staff stopped them from throwing malwa there he was threatened with knife and pistol and he somehow saved himself. I rushed to the site when informed by MCD EE. Shocking! Hope @DelhiPolice takes action now for good. I have decided to personally look into this and teach these politically motivated people a strong lesson. Hope @LtGovDelhi takes note of it and directs the strictest action against the perpetrators.”