FOR FAVOUR OF PUBLICATION NEW DELHI, Jan. 7—A delegation of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), led by its president Shri Jai Prakash Agarwal, MP today met Lt. Governor Shri Tejinder Khanna and impressed upon him that the move to make it mandatory for the people of Delhi to carry photo identity cards from January 15 had created a fear psychosis among the people, and requested him not to implement the decision. Besides Shri Agarwal, others who accompanied the delegation were MPs Shri Jagdish Tytler, Shri Sandeep Dikshit and Smt. Krishna Tirath, Opposition leader in the MCD Shri Jai Kishan Sharma, former Mayors Shri Ashok Kumar Jain and Shri Farhad Suri, former leader of the MCD Shri Jitender Kumar Jitu, AICC secretary Smt. Alka Lamba, DPCC office-bearers Shri Om Prakash Bhiduri, Shri Rajinder Malik, Shri Dhirender Tyagi, Smt. Darshana Ramkumar, Shri Raj Kumar Kholi, Shri Sulekh Chand Jain, Shri Madan Khorwal, Shri Balwan Khokhar, Shri Deepak Ghothi, Shi Mahmood Zia, Shri Prahlad Rana, Shri Pramod Choudhary, Shri Brahm Yadav and Shri Jaiveer Nagar and DUSU president Amrita Bahari. DPCC president Shri Jai Prakash Agarwal said it was impractical to implement the photo identity card scheme in a haste as people from various parts of the country live in Delhi and people from various parts of the country visit the Capital daily for various purposes, including eking out a livelihood, and people from Delhi also visit other States and it was not feasible to insist that everyone should carry photo identity cards by January 15, 2008. Shri Agarwal impressed upon the Lt. Governor that the photo ID card move, if implemented, will only lead to harassment of people in the hands of the police and therefore it should not be implemented at any cost. He said the police already enjoyed the powers to make random checks of identity cards whenever they had doubts about the identity of somebody but to make it mandatory for everyone to carry photo ID cards was not feasible practical. After the meeting with the Lt. Governor, Shri Agarwal told newspersons that the Lt. Governor carefully listened to the views of the DPCC delegation and assured them that no such order had been issued nor was there any move to implement photo ID card scheme to dispel the fears of the people of Delhi. He said the Congress Party had always fought for the rights of the people of Delhi, and would continue to do so, and assured the people of Delhi there was not move to make it mandatory to carry photo ID cards from January 15, and everything will remain as it is. PRAMOD KUMAR The Chief Reporter New Delhi. |
