Shinde skips police HQ ceremony
In what appeared to be a virtual snub to Delhi police chief Neeraj Kumar, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Friday skipped the foundation stone-laying ceremony for the proposed new headquarters of Delhi police citing inadequacy in the documentation of the project.
Mr Shinde, who was the chief guest at the function, decided to skip the meet at the 11th hour causing much embarrassment to the Delhi police brass.
Incidentally, the Delhi police under Mr Kumar had been under fire after the December 16 gangrape case and its handling of the mass protests at India Gate in 2012. Mr Kumar demits office on July 31.
The building is to be built at a cost of `1,095 crores and is considered to be the brain child of Mr Kumar. The project was initiated in the days when he was special commissioner in Delhi police.
“It (the building) still has not been given its environmental and height clearances, among others. Home ministry officials suggested I should not go there,” Mr Shinde told reporters minutes after cancelling the visit to the function organised at Jai Singh Marg near CP.
Immediately after the function, the Delhi police chief rushed to the North Block where he had to wait for nearly an hour before the home minister gave him an audience. Union home secretary Anil Goswami was also present in the meeting.
“The home minister had accepted the invitation to lay the foundation stone (for the police HQ). But later, he refused to come. “So, we have only done ‘bhoomi pujan’ and have not laid the foundation stone. Someone in his ministry told the home minister that it would not be correct going there,” Mr Kumar said after his meeting with Mr Shinde.
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