Maken attacks AAP govt, seeks CBI inquiry into ‘delay’ on

manjha ban New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Ajay Makentoday sought a CBI inquiry into the "delay" on part of the AAPgovernment in banning ‘manjha’ in Delhi, alleging it was doneto "benefit importers" of the metal-coated Chinese thread. The Delhi government issued a draft notification forbanning manjha on August 16, a day after the Independence Day,when the sales of that thread were almost over, he said. "Such deliberate inaction on the part of the governmentand ignorance towards public safety, cost some lives in thenational capital on August 15," he said in his letter to theCBI Director. The DPCC chief alleged the draft notification was "aneyewash" and it has further delayed the actual ban for atleast 60 days under the pretext of inviting objections frompublic. Two children and a youth had died on Independence Day askite strings slit their throats in separate incidents acrossthe national capital, prompting the Delhi government to banthe killer thread the next day. He claimed Rule 4(5) of Environment (Protection) Rules,1986 enables the Delhi government to issue the saidnotification without inviting objections. Maken said the Karnataka government had banned Chinese’manjha’ on July 22 and before that the Maharashtra andRajasthan governments too had banned the Chinese thread. He asked as to what was "holding back" Delhi governmentfrom issuing a final notification banning the Chinese manjadespite the Delhi High Court’s direction to various governmentagencies to issue advisories to the public regarding thedangers of using nylon/synthetic manjhas. DPCC in a statement today said, Maken, in his letter, hasdemanded a "thorough probe" into the matter. He alleged the Kejriwal government was trying to "pass theblame" to bureaucrats, but when it comes to its clashes withthe Centre and others, the AAP government directly blames thePrime Minister and the Lt. Government for its woes. Delhi BJP President Satish Upadhyay said that once againthe city has seen the "insensitive face" of the ArvindKejriwal government. The chief minister, who rushes to all corners of thecountry to express "politically motivated sympathies" to thepeople aggrieved due to any unfortunate incident, has goneinto "hibernation" over the unfortunate death and injuries topeople due to Chinese manjha, he alleged. PTI KNDZMN