Digvijaya Singh: Delhi govt cannot have jurisdiction over city police

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh has said Delhi government cannot have jurisdiction over the city police, which has to rest with the Centre to avoid conflict of interest. He also made clear Congress' stand against the full statehood demand for Delhi, noting that nowhere in the world the national capital stays with another state. "Washington is directly controlled by Federal Government. It's a matter of internal security also," the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister told PTI, citing an example.

"If there is a conflict of interest, between the Chief Minister of one party and government of another party (at the Centre), what will happen?" Singh asked. "What does the statehood mean? It means the police is also with the state government. What happens if Delhi Chief Minister files a criminal case against Prime Minister? "...it should be understood that the Delhi government has all the powers, except the powers of police. Everything else is there," Singh said. "There has to be clearcut definition, defining of powers in the Constitution, which is there," he said.

On frequent "run-ins" between the Delhi government and Centre-appointed LG Najeeb Jung, Singh said: "If you compare the working of Sheila Dixit (former Chief Minister) and Arvind Kejriwal, both functioned with same powers. She delivered. People say that never so much work has been done, as was done during her tenure."

The AAP government in Delhi earlier this year released a draft bill on full statehood to Delhi, seeking to bring police, land, municipal corporations and bureaucracy under its control, and invited suggestions from the public.