L-G says no, Arvind Kejriwal turns to Centre for Singapore trip

New Delhi, July 21

Defying the advice of Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena to skip a conference in Singapore, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said he would go ahead with the scheduled visit.

‘Event for mayors’

The L-G advised Delhi CM not to attend the summit since it was a conference of mayors and it wouldn’t befit a CM to attend it.

He requested for political clearance from the Central government for the visit.

Disagreeing with the observations of the L-G that the conference was for mayors and it was not advisable for the Chief Minister to attend, Kejriwal said, “If the visit of each constitutional authority in the country were to be decided on the basis of what subjects fall within the jurisdiction of that authority, it would create a funny situation and a logjam. Then the Prime Minister would not be able to go anywhere because in most of his visits he also discusses subjects which fall in the state list.” Kejriwal has been invited to ‘Eighth World Cities Summit and WCS Mayors Forum 2022’ to be held in Singapore from July 31 to August 3 and for further stay there from August 4 to August 7.

After perusing Kejriwal’s travel request, the Lieutenant Governor said having studied the nature of the forum and attendees, “it must be noted that prima facie it is a conference of mayors of various cities…”

Responding to the L-G, Kejriwal said it was not just a mayors’ conference but a meeting of city leaders and knowledge experts.