Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant General VK Saxena hit out at each other on Wednesday through exhaustive "open letters" on the issue of a proposed water bill settlement scheme.
Saxena, in his letter, emphasised the importance of propriety, constitutional boundary, and desisting from intemperate language while Kejriwal accused the LG of stalling the scheme.
"What pains me more and leaves me perplexed is that in your verbose communication, you have chosen to completely sidestep the substantive issue on the so-called 'water scheme', which I had raised with you. The seven-page reply that you have written to me does not address even a single substantive issue raised by me in my letter," Saxena said.
"Since day one, I urged you to work together for the benefit of the people of Delhi rather than indulging in petty politicking. Having said that, I would like to say that I am pained that you were pained," he added.
The LG said he stood by his observation that the Delhi government did not submit a single piece of paper on the "supposed water scheme" to him, even as the chief minister, in his letter, has "summarily blamed" him for stalling it.
"It is unbecoming of a chief minister to confuse the citizens of the city by chimerical promises of free water. By your own admission, water meters are faulty and DJB has been sending inflated bills. If this was the case, where was the political oversight over the last decade to ensure that people are not harassed?" Saxena stated.
"The status of public health in the city, the sorry state of affairs in Delhi government hospitals flagged even by the high court, the pathetic condition of roads, an over-hyped education system which has registered lower enrolments, overflowing sewage lines and drains, scams in the excise policy, fake tests in mohalla clinics on 'ghost patients' did not happen during the last two years," he said.
Kejriwal And Delhi Government Respond
Responding to the letter, Kejriwal said he was "deeply pained" by the contents of the letter.
"...Whatever our differences, whatever our political backgrounds, however diverse our perspectives; this kind of offensive language is not acceptable from one constitutional functionary to another," he added.
On the claim made by Delhi LG that no document was submitted to him regarding the water bill scheme, Kejriwal said he discussed the matter more than once.
Speaking in the Delhi Assembly on Thursday, Kejriwal said that the language of LG's open letter was "filthy" and accused him of stalling the bus-marshal scheme.
In his open letter on Wednesday, Kejriwal said he was pained by the content of the LG's letter.
The Delhi government also launched an attack on the LG saying he could have acted against the erring officers or called the chief minister for a discussion on such an important issue raised by him.
But he chose to ignore the wrongdoings of the officers and resorted to accusing Kejriwal and the city government in "crude language" that even political opponents rarely use, the Delhi government said on Thursday in response to the LG's fresh letter.
Dubbing the LG's fresh letter as unfortunate, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government said that he is free to accuse the chief minister and other ministers to his "heart's content" by writing such long letters every day.
"But we request him to please allow the elected government in Delhi to work and serve the people of Delhi without any obstruction or hurdles, which have unfortunately become a daily affair under his term," it said.