NEW DELHI: Chirag Dilli residents were left disappointed on Sunday afternoon after an open debate between
MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj
and former councillor
Rakesh Gulia
was called off.
Bhardwaj had challenged Gulia for an open debate over disbursal of pensions on social media on Saturday. Residents were invited through announcements and pamphlets. The showdown, however, didn’t go as planned.
People had been waiting at
Dargah Chowk
since 11am but the politicians arrived much later and missed each other. Gulia reached first, around 12pm. In Bhardwaj’s absence, Gulia’s supporters raised slogans against him and after a while, the police asked the people to leave. Bhardwaj arrived half-an-hour later, but Gulia had already left by then.
Residents complained they wanted to know why development in the area had come to a standstill and why they should suffer due to a tussle between the AAP government and the BJP-led corporations.
“We came here because we had questions. We wanted to ask them about their performances,” said Alok Kumar, a resident.
Bhardwaj later posted a video on Facebook claiming that the police didn’t grant permission to conduct the debate. So, he asked Gulia for a live debate on Facebook, but he refused. Gulia slammed the MLA for not turning up on time. “He challenged me for an open debate and is now asking me to do it on Facebook. The audience meant for the debate doesn’t have access to social media,” said Gulia.
In the video, Bhardwaj alleged that south corporation had violated a Delhi high court order. “Last year, HC had directed the corporations to hand over the list of pensioners to Delhi government after verification. But the corporations failed to do so. The councillors were supposed to organise camps in every ward for verification. I had to do it since Gulia didn’t.”
Gulia, however, said that the corporations aren’t profit-making bodies. “Due to some reasons, there has been a delay in disbursal of pensions. SDMC has already allocated Rs 100 crore for pensions. We intend to disburse it soon. The MLA should focus on more pressing issues rather than interfering in corporation-related matters,” he said.
Police agreed that permission was withheld due to law and order concerns.