After a meeting with Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately withdraw the ordinance issued by the Centre on control of services in Delhi.
After the Centre brought out the ordinance earlier this month, Kejriwal has been meeting Opposition leaders for a collective resistance against the bill.
After their meeting, Rao held a press conference and said that he stands by Kejriwal and will do everything to defeat the ordinance.
Kejriwal was accompanied by Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, who was also present at the press conference.
Rao said, "We demand the Prime Minister to withdraw the ordinance yourself or else we all will support Kejriwal Ji. We will stand by him. We will use all our strength in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to defeat the ordinance. Unnecessarily don’t make an issue. Let the government work...I can say without an iota of doubt it is insult to the Delhi state people."
Rao blamed the Modi-led central government for "harassing the democratically elected state governments". He alleged there was no difference between the situation when Emergency was imposed and now.
Earlier this month, the Centre promulgated an ordinance to create an authority for the transfer and posting of Group-A officers in Delhi, with the AAP government calling the move a deception with the Supreme Court verdict on control of services.
The ordinance, which came a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services in Delhi excluding police, public order and land to the elected government, seeks to set up a National Capital Civil Service Authority for transfer of and disciplinary proceedings against Group-A officers from the DANICS cadre.
Kejriwal has been on a tour to meet the opposition leaders across the country to support him against this ordinance's decision, so far he has met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.
(with PTI inputs)
