KEJRIWAL SWEARING-IN TODAY
SWEARING-IN Around 50,000 people expected at Ramlila ground
Delhi’s chief minister designate Arvind Kejriwal takes oath for the third time on Sunday at Ramlila Maidan, he will be sharing stage with 50 people under the banner ‘Delhi ke nirmata’ (architects of Delhi). Geeta Devi (36) and Arun Kumar (22), both homeguards, are among them..
NEWDELHI:As a large crowd gathered on the lawns of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) head office in central Delhi’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay road on Saturday afternoon, Geeta Devi adjusted her crisply ironed khaki uniform.
It was the first time she would face the camera.
Devi, a 36-year-old homeguard employed with the Delhi government, is one of the 50 people chosen by the AAP to share stage with Delhi’s chief minister designate Arvind Kejriwal, as he takes oath for the third consecutive time in Ramlila Maidan on Sunday.
On Saturday, Devi had come to the party office to collect her special invitation card, when she was swamped by a group of news reporters.In a first, Delhi chief minister designate Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday will share stage with a group of commoners for his swearing-in – under the banner ‘Delhi ke Nirmata’ (architects of Delhi) – a report on which was published by HT on Saturday.
While Devi helped in the arrest of a pickpocket, her colleague Arun Kumar (22), who is also among the special invitees for the event, had rescued a four-year-old girl from an abduction attempt in a bus in November. Both Devi and Kumar are among 5,000 new homeguard recruits who have been deployed in buses by the AAP government last year to enhance women security.
The special invitees belong to different walks of life — doctors, teachers, sanitation workers, bus conductors, bus drivers, marshals deployed for women security, auto-rickshaw drivers, farmers, anganwadi workers, athletes, IIT and medical students enrolled under scholarships, PWD engineers, businessmen, mobile ambulance operator, relatives of fire officials and police officials who lost their lives on the line of duty and the chief architect of Signature Bridge Ratan Jamshed Batliboi, among others.
“They are the people who make Delhi what it is. They are the true architects of the city,” senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia said as he elaborated on ‘Delhi ke Nirmata’ in a press conference earlier on Saturday.
Another senior AAP leader said, “The special invitees were shortlisted on basis of performance in their occupations that have been recognised by governments, civic agencies or media, or on basis of reference from department heads in some cases.”
“I am too happy to speak,” said Alka Chaudhary, the first doctor to have joined the AAP government’s flagship project of Mohalla Clinics in Delhi in 2016.
She at present is posted at the Peeragarhi clinic, one of the 300odd clinics that are currently functional.
Chaudhary, who too is one of the special invitees for Sunday’s event, said, “There are several doctors like me who have quit their jobs and joined mohalla clinics where they get to serve people belonging to all social classes.”
Around 50,000 people are expected to be accommodated inside the premises of the central Delhi ground. As many as 3,000 AAP volunteers will be engaged in crowd management, said a senior AAP leader.