Raising the party’s pitch over the persistent power crisis in the city, Congress MLAs and scores of party workers gheraoed Delhi Chief Secretary S. K. Srivastava at his office on Monday.
High drama ensued at Delhi Secretariat as the Congress leaders held a dharna outside the conference room of Mr. Srivastava’s office for over an hour demanding immediate improvement in power and water supply across the city even as the Chief Secretary and other officials kept sitting inside the room.
The Congress workers, led by Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh, accused the Delhi Government of “failing completely” in providing electricity to the people and alleged that the existing officials have been handling the issue in an “insensitive” manner.
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Congress leaders claimed they called off their protest after the Chief Secretary gave them written assurance of making all efforts to improve power supply.
“If power supply is not normalised within the next 24 hours, the Congress will then stage a protest outside the Lieutenant-Governor’s secretariat on Wednesday,” said Mr. Singh.
The Gandhi Nagar MLA further rubbished the claims of the Delhi Government officials attributing the worsening situation of electricity here to the recent thunderstorm. “A total of 148 thunderstorms were reported during the 15-year rule of the Congress, but such a situation never occurred before,” he said.
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The Congress leaders also questioned the decision of the Delhi Government to switch off the street lights to save power.
“It would be a big threat to the safety and security of women. We seek withdrawal of the direction by the Lieutenant-Governor on the issue,” Delhi Congress spokesperson Mukesh Sharma said.