Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who offered to work with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government to battle a growing scare of Covid-19 and to control the situation in the aftermath of the violence in north-east Delhi that led to at least 48 people losing their lives and more than 300 being injured.
Kejriwal’s visit comes hours after the first positive case of the deadly Covid-19 in the national capital and just days after the violence.
It was his first visit to the Prime Minister since he took oath as chief minister for a third term last month.
“Coronavirus was discussed. The central government and Delhi government will work together because it is a dangerous illness which has spread with great speed in whichever country it has entered. We need to work together to ensure that it does not spread,” Kejriwal told reporters after the meeting.
The chief minister said Modi agreed to work together to develop Delhi. Kejriwal also appealed to the Prime Minister to ensure that those responsible for the riots are punished keeping aside their affiliation to a political party or religion.
“The incidents over the past few days in Delhi were also discussed. I told him that on Sunday, there were many rumours across Delhi. The Delhi Police played a key role in appealing to people to maintain peace and stop the rumours. They managed to stop a big incident. Last week, Monday and Tuesday night saw the maximum amount of violence, all in one district. If the same action had been taken, then many lives could have been saved,” he said.
“I appealed and he also said that we need to ensure that such riots never take place in the national capital again. I appealed to him that those responsible for these riots, they could be from any political party, religion, someone prominent, there should be strict action so that a message goes down that such violence will not be tolerated,” Kejriwal said.
Catch all the Business News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.