Delhi Congress workers led by party president Anil Kumar staged a sit-in at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Wednesday against the Centre's bill that seeks to define certain roles and powers of the Lieutenant Governor of the national capital, demanding that the government withdraw it.
The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was introduced in Lok Sabha by Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy on Monday.
"We are protesting against the autocracy of the Centre and the murder of democracy in Delhi through this bill," Kumar said.
According to the GNCTD (Amendment) Bill, the "government" in the city would mean the "Lieutenant Governor" in context of any law made by the legislative assembly.
The bill also makes it mandatory for the Delhi government to take the opinion of the LG before any executive action, and the Assembly would lose its powers to conduct probes into administrative decisions like it is currently investigating Facebook’s alleged role in 2020’s communal riots.
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by its national convener and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will also stage a protest against the bill at Jantar Mantar later in the day.
The AAP leader tweeted on Monday: “The Bill says — 1. For Delhi, ‘Govt’ will mean LG. Then what will the elected govt do? 2. All files will go to LG. This is against 4.7.18 Constitution Bench judgement which said that files will not be sent to LG, the elected govt will take all decisions and send a copy of decision to LG.”
