NEW DELHI: Irked by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal chairing a meeting on the status of CCTV cameras in the capital, Delhi government termed the LG a " dictator " and charged him with running a parallel government. Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said the installation of CCTV cameras across Delhi was a subject that fell in the domain of the elected government over which the LG did not have the power to summon meetings.

Sisodia resorted to tweets to say, “LG sir, please do not be a dictator. This is an attempt to run a parallel government in Delhi. It’s illegal. You don’t have the power to call a meeting on issues under elected government’s domain.” Over this, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also advised the LG on Twitter to “respect and follow the Constitution”.

In the meeting in which Baijal met the chief secretary, urban development principal secretary, police commissioner and Delhi Police officers, he directed the setting up of an inter-agency group that would formulate a standard operating procedure on uniformity in installation of CCTV cameras as well as look at issues of privacy, security, feed-sharing, integration and optimum utilisation of the footage. The LG also ordered deterrent liability clauses in contracts to check poor maintenance of the cameras.

In its presentation at the meeting, Delhi Police said that 4,067 CCTV cameras had been installed at 87 sites, and the proposal to put up another 1,380 cameras was being considered by the Union home ministry. It said that around 11,000 cameras were installed in the city by agencies like DMRC, NDMC, Railways and DIAL.

The meeting, the government claimed, amounted to undermining the constitutional authority of the elected government. “The meeting was about the installation of CCTV cameras, not about law and order. If the meeting was about law and order, then what was the purpose of Delhi government officials attending it?” asked an official.

Despite TOI’s efforts to reach him, Baijal did not respond with comment on the remarks of the state government though a press release was issued by the LG’s office regarding the meeting.

After it came to power in 2015, the Aam Aadmi Party government elevated its much talked about poll promise to install a large number of CCTV cameras across the city into a flagship project. However, it is yet to come off the drawing board, and the Opposition has claimed that Kejriwal’s government had failed to fulfil its promise.

The government maintains it has set the ball rolling and the public works department has awarded the Rs 272-crore contract of installing 1.4 lakh CCTV cameras to Bharat Electronics Limited. The work is expected to start soon to meet the 2019 target. The government had earmarked Rs 300 crore for the project in the state budget.

The meeting and the reactions it evinced is another low point in the contentious relationship between the LG and the government, which has been marked by the latter frequently accusing the former of encroaching on its powers in violation of the constitutional norms.

