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Soni Mishra
Soni Mishra

DELHI

Yogendra Yadav challenges Kejriwal on liquor licence issue

63YogendraYadav Yogendra Yadav said the AAP government in Delhi has wrongly claimed that it has issued only six new licenses for opening liquor vends

Former colleague and now fierce critic Yogendra Yadav on Tuesday took on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, accusing him of misleading Delhiites on the issue of giving licences for opening liquor vends in the capital and demanded that he tender an apology to the people.

In a letter addressed to Kejriwal, Yadav said the AAP government in Delhi has wrongly claimed that it has issued only six new licences for opening liquor vends, while the fact is that it has issued licences at the rate of almost one a day.

“When Swaraj Abhiyan released different RTIs showing figures ranging from 58 to 217 new licences, your deputy CM claimed this was a lie… Since you have questioned us, I am constrained to respond with this challenge,” wrote Yadav.

He has challenged Kejriwal to prove that the list of 399 new licences issued by the AAP government for new liquor vends, which he is releasing, is incorrect. “I challenge you to prove that this figure of 399 is incorrect and that your deputy CM was not misleading the people of Delhi. If you can, I offer to withdraw from public life.”

Yadav added, “But if your government is lying… well, in that case I leave it to your conscience!” He said, Kejriwal, at the very least, could offer an apology to the people of Delhi on the issue of liquor licence.

He said if he did not hear from Kejriwal on this for 72 hours, which is till the mid-day of September 2, he would assume that his government has accepted the veracity of the list.

Swaraj Abhiyan, an organisation launched by Yadav and Prashant Bhushan after their exit from the AAP, has started an aggressive campaign against the liquor policy of Kejriwal government, claiming that liquor vends were being opened without the consent of the local residents and that there has been a phenomenal rise in their numbers, despite the party coming to power on the promise of freeing Delhi from addiction.

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