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Ministry Of Home Affairs Rubbishes AAP Ads, Says Only 11 Bills Submitted

Officials say only two bills have been pending for at least six months.
NEW DELHI, INDIA - JUNE 10: Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal addressing auto drivers. (Photo by Virendra Singh Gosain/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
NEW DELHI, INDIA - JUNE 10: Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal addressing auto drivers. (Photo by Virendra Singh Gosain/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Countering the claim made by the Delhi government through advertisements in newspapers, accusing the union government of withholding the approvals for 14 bills passed by Delhi government, home ministry officials on Wednesday said that only one of the 11 bills submitted is pending, according to a news report.

"The union government has withheld consent in only one case of The Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification Amendment) Bill, 2015," a senior official of the home ministry told The Indian Express.

Two of the other 10 bills received by the home ministry, not more than six months ago, are under examination, the official added.

"The Home Ministry received only 11 bills reserved for Presidential Assent by the Lieutenant Governor, not 14 as claimed by the Delhi government in its advertisement today. Of these 11, only in the case of one bill, related to parliamentary secretaries, has approval been withheld," a senior MHA official told The Indian Express.

Two bills were sent back to the Delhi government for clarifications and are pending with it, the official clarified.

The Aam Aadmi Party had recently spent crores on full page advertisements, listing out several complaints that the Delhi government has against the Central government. It alleged that the Modi government had arbitrarily transferred several officers to postings outside Delhi, thereby jeopardizing a lot of development work that was being done there.

"The two bills – Minimum Wages (Delhi) Amendment Bill, 2015, and The Delhi Netaji Subhas University of Technology Bill, 2015 – were returned to the Delhi government seeking clarifications. Reminders were also sent to the Delhi government, but we are yet to receive a response," the official told IE.

The official claimed that six of the other eight bills have been received only on April 1, 2016 and are under various stages of examination.

"Only two of the 11 Delhi government Bills received have been with the Home Ministry for more than six months. These are under examination," the official said.

The ministry received the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (Amendment) Bill, 2015 in August last year while the Delhi (Right of Citizen to Time Bound Delivery of Services) Amendment Bill, 2015, was received in December 2015.

"More time is being consumed in processing of the bills because prior approval of the Centre was not sought as required by law before they were passed by the Delhi Assembly. This had never happened before," said an MHA official.Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had recently attacked Narendra Modi over the issue of office of profit and accused the prime minister of unnecessarily targeting him and his party members.

"I want to request Modiji with folded hands not to trouble the people of Delhi. Your fight is with me. Beat me or take as much revenge as you want against me. But do not try to stop good work in Delhi which is being praised world-wide including by the UN," Kejriwal had said in a press meet.

An AAP MLA from Deoli was arrested last week on charges of misbehaving with a woman. Earlier in the month, Kejriwal's principal secretary Rajendra Kumar and four others were picked up by the CBI in a relation to a corruption case.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.