The renaming of the Barapullah flyover, announced by the Aam Aadmi Party earlier this week, came as a surprise to many of the Delhi government officials actually concerned with the change in formality.
A press statement announcing the renaming of the flyover to Banda Singh Bahadur Setu was released to the media, even as officials from a number of government departments were in the dark. Several officials from the Public Works Department expressed ignorance about the renaming and suggested that the news be verified from party sources instead of the department.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, like usual, was the driving force behind the change in nomenclature of the much-used flyover after being impressed by the history surrounding Barapullah in relation to Banda Singh Bahadur, a devotee of Guru Gobind Singh, who is credited with the establishment of the first Sikh State in northern India. A delegation of Sikh groups had called on Mr. Kejriwal on May 28 and the Chief Minister had assured them that they “will not be disappointed”.
The first signs of fissures between the AAP government and the police, ever since Alok Kumar Verma took over as the Delhi Police chief, came to the fore last week following the brutal murder of a woman and her two daughters in North-East Delhi.
Reacting to the triple murder, the Chief Minister posted a series of tweets questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung on the law and order situation in the Capital. The media immediately picked up the issue, some calling it a “jungle raaj” in Delhi.
The Delhi Police hit back on the day the murder case was solved. During the press conference, the Delhi Police’s PRO took centre stage to hit out at the detractors who termed the situation “jungle raaj”.
He pointed to statistics, which claimed that murders in the Capital had dipped by 10 per cent this year, compared to the first five months last year.Both, the police and the government, however, abstained from direct attacks on each other.
One of the first things that new Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Garima Bhatnagar (IPS-1994) has done since assuming charge last Monday is to ensure that the good work done by her field staff gets recognition among the higher ups in Delhi Police.
In a letter sent to all the traffic zone Deputy Commissioners of Police and her seniors, she has written that it has been observed that the good work done by traffic officers does not reach seniors (like the work of police control room or beat staff does). She has suggested that from now on a diary be maintained to compile the good work done by traffic officers and copies of the same be circulated among senior officers.
Ms. Bhatnagar, former Joint CP (Special Branch), joined as the new Joint CP after her predecessor, Sharad Aggarwal, was relieved to proceed to CBI on deputation.
(Contributed by Jatin Anand, Shiv Sunny and Shubhomoy Sikdar)
