‘Will work as city’s local guardian’: Delhi’s new LG Saxena takes oath
Alok KN Mishra
NEW DELHI: Vinai Kumar Saxena, former chairperson of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), took oath as the Capital’s 22nd Lieutenant Governor (LG) on Thursday, over a week after his predecessor Anil Baijal resigned citing personal reasons.
Saxena, 64, is the first from a non-bureaucratic and non-defence background to be appointed Delhi LG.
After the swearing-in, Saxena, who joined a month after the Jahangirpuri riots, outlined communal harmony as his priority area besides fighting pollution and developing Delhi as a beautiful city and stressed that he will be active in the field rather than staying at Raj Niwas.
Saxena said that he will work as the “local guardian (LG)” for every resident of Delhi rather than the lieutenant governor. “You will find me more in the field than in Raj
Niwas,” he said as he thanked President Ram Nath Kovind, PM Narendra Modi, and home minister Amit Shah for entrusting him with the responsibility.
“I have seen for some time that there have been many riots in Delhi. I want to tell everyone that we should work together as brothers,” he said.
Saxena was sworn in by the acting chief justice of the Delhi high court Vipin Sanghi at a ceremony organised inside a white air-conditioned marquee erected in the green lawns of Raj Niwas where Union minister Giriraj Singh, ministers of state Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma and Meenakashi Lekhi, CM Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues, MP Manoj Tiwari and Parvesh Sahib Singh, leader of the Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, judges of the Delhi high court, BJP and AAP MLAS, as well as top bureaucrats were present.
Later, the new LG had an informal get-together with the CM, the leader of the Opposition, and other dignitaries in the laws of Raj Niwas over breakfast. Kejriwal said the Delhi government will provide full support to the new LG. “With his predecessor we have completed several good developmental projects. I hope to continue the same with Saxena. We are looking forward to it,” Kejriwal told reporters.
“Delhi has some inherent problems, especially pollution like water pollution, air pollution and noise pollution. With Delhi government, central government and the people of Delhi we will try to solve these problems,” the LG said.
He also said, “A very large section of the population of Delhi is engaged in the unorganised sector doing various small nature of work. We will try to empower them and provide them training equipment, etc. We will take everyone along.” The LG added that he has a dream to make Delhi a city of flowers and a city of joy.
Dramatic scenes were witnessed at the event when former Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan walked out in a huff after he was asked by an official to leave a seat reserved for someone else but he did not get another seat after waiting for 15 minutes. “I feel sorry that I could not attend the swearing-in ceremony of the LG of Delhi from where I am an MP and where I remained socially active for long,” Vardhan tweeted.
An official attributed the ‘confusion’ to a mismatch in seating arrangement.