Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday stepped up his attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government over the "deteriorating" law and order situation in Delhi and sought a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the issue.
In a letter to Shah, the former Delhi chief minister claimed that the city was being called the country's "crime capital" as he cited the recent bomb threats to numerous schools as well as the IGI airport.
The letter comes ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls scheduled to be held in February 2025.
"It's so shameful that under your watch, our grand capital due to failure of law and order is being called rape capital, gangster capital, drug capital," Kejriwal said.
Crimes against women are rising, extortion gangs are active everywhere, drug mafia is spreading across the city and people are harassed by mobile phone and chain snatching incidents, he claimed.
In the past six months, more than 600 schools, more than 100 hospitals, malls and airport have received bomb threat messages, he said and questioned, "Why aren't the culprits being arrested?"
Due to these bomb threats, children and their parents in Delhi are living in constant fear. Have you ever thought about the children and their parents when the schools are vacated and the students are sent back home, he asked Shah.
He said Delhi's law and order was under the Centre and emphasised that Shah needed to act and cooperate to immediately rectify the situation.
Among the 19 metro cities, Delhi is the number one in terms of crimes against women and murders. Drug-related crimes registered a 350 per cent rise since 2019, an average of three women are raped every day and businesspersons regularly receive extortion calls, Kejriwal claimed.
"These statistics are evidence of the dilapidated law and order situation," he said.
Kejriwal said he was going among the people and found "deep concern" among them towards law and order.
"Now the biggest question of the people is if they don't deserve a better law and order condition in the national capital?" he said.
The situation is very poor and law and order must be brought back on track by rising above politics, Kejriwal wrote to Shah seeking time for a meeting.
