: In a late evening development here on Friday, Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung issued urgent summons to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, directing him to "return to the NCT of Delhi immediately" from Europe in light of the dengue and chikungunya outbreak in the Capital.
According to a source from Raj Niwas, Mr. Jung "sent the summons via fax personally" to Mr. Sisodia, who is on an official tour of Finland, along with representatives of Brazil, China and some Gulf Nations, to assess best practices in Finnish education.
Source said, besides Mr. Sisodia, who also hold the education portfolio, all officers including Education Secretary have been directed to return to Delhi immediately.
“The L-G has sent the summons himself directing the Minister to return to Delhiin light of the outbreak of vector-borne diseases in the NCT so that it may be tackled more effectively," said the source.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is away in Bengaluru where he is receiving post-op care after a throat surgery while Labour Minister Gopal Rai is in Chhattisgarh for party work.
Till early this week, Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra was the only member from Mr. Kejriwal's cabinet to be present in Delhi, before being joined by Health Minister Satyendra Jain, who was away in Goa for party work.
Earlier in the day, Congress activists observed 'Bhagoda Divas' in Delhi to protest against the alleged absence of the Chief Minister, his deputy and other ministers from the capital.
Refuting the allegation of the Opposition that he is “holidaying” in Finland, Mr. Sisodia said it was not a “sin” to study the schooling system of other countries to fix the problems in Delhi’s education system.
He said he had worked hard to improve the education system in the Capital and he was in Finland to see what more needs to be done.
“Learning from across the world is not a sin. It's a sin to defame an educational tour as a 'holiday'. I'm in Finland. We need to learn a lot from their education system, the best in the world (sic)," he said in a series of tweets.
