Zee Media Bureau/Ritesh K Srivastava
New Delhi: In a major embarrassment to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on Thursday returned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government`s recommendation of removing Barkha Singh as the Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).
According to reports,, the Delhi Lt Governor has asked the state government to explain what are the grounds on which it is seeking the re-constitution of DCW.
The Chief Minister had earlier sent a recommendation to Jung to appoint eminent social worker Maitreyi Pushpa as DCW Chairperson in place of Barkha Singh.
The face-off between the Aaam Aadmi Party government and Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) intensified over latter`s action against Law Minister Somnath Bharti, who has faced criticism for conducting a midnight raid on the house of a Ugandan national and misbehaving with him.
Since then, both sides have refused to budge from their respective stands.
The AAP government had pressed for Barkha Singh`s removal to ensure `unbiased` probe against Bharti, the DCW has demanded that a FIR be lodged against the Law Minister for not heeding to repeated summons by the panel.
“Barkha Singh is of the Congress, if she remains the chairperson of DCW then she will do politics; we want a probe by a unbiased person,” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said.
Barkha Singh hit back at the AAP government and said that she will be meet Lt Governor Najeeb Jung later today to present the DCW`s view on the matter.
“We are going to meet the LG to put our view. I will present the facts to him. The law minister should not be taking law in his hand; No body has the right to ask me for my resignation,”she said.
Slamming the AAP government for taking steps towards her removal, DCW Chairperson Barkha Singh today branded Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his ministers as "dictators" and accused them of acting on their whims.
Singh met Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and put forth her views on Delhi government seeking to remove her from the post of chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women.
"I am holding a constitutional post and the Delhi government cannot remove me. I have handed over a rule book of DCW to the LG so that he gets to know that the government cannot remove the chairperson from the post," Singh told reporters after meeting LG.
She said Jung had assured her that he would look into the matter and go through the rule book.
"They (Kejriwal, his Ministers) have become dictators. They are acting according to their whims and fancies," she said.
The chairperson also threatened to take legal recourse if she is removed by the AAP government.
"I am not going to step down as the chairperson of DCW because I still have one year and four months left in my tenure. However, if they remove me, violating rules, I will take help of the law," she said.
On being asked about AAP government`s claim that she was politician, so she cannot continue as DCW chief, Bharti said as per DCW act, there is nothing written in it that a political leader cannot hold the post.
