By IANS
New Delhi : After taking a u-turn over the controversial move to make it mandatory for all in the national capital to carry their identity cards, Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna has said the media “misreported” him on the issue.
“Ours is a free country and people are most welcome to have their comments. But I definitely feel that media misreported me. When instead of saying that it (carrying an identity card) was an advisory, they (media) reported it was mandatory,” Khanna told news channel CNBC TV 18 in an interview on the programme “India Tonight”, broadcast Wednesday.
“That was never my point nor my intention. I know there is no law on such a subject (always carrying an identity card). I just said that during the random checks – only of those who arouse suspicion – it would be a convenience to them and the police as well.”
“I have clear recollection about what I have said in the press conference on Jan 4. I explained that the security environment in the national capital is very sensitive and we had many unfortunate incidents,” he said, noting recent terror strikes here and elsewhere in the country.
“So the kind of input we are getting from the agencies show that even on the surface everything appear quiet but there are certain anti-national forces at work and that can result in pretty serious breaches and terror incidents in Delhi.
“In this context I said all our citizens need to be more alert. They should be concerned about the security environment in which they live. In this context, I also said that we are going to ask the police to carry out random checks in public places. The intention would be to identify persons of suspicious conduct to whom we need to investigate further,” Khanna said.
“I had said if you are able to display your some sort of photo identity card, it would facilitate Delhi Police in their security purpose.”
Asked about his own announcement that adequate action would be taken against the person who failed to show any identity proof, Khanna said: “I would like to clarify that only people who arouse suspicion would be asked to display the identity card. If the person fails to satisfy the police team during the checking, he would be taken for further questioning to ensure that the person doesn’t pose any security risk to the society.”
Khanna himself admitted that there was no law or existing regulation, which requires Indian citizens to carry identity cards.
When asked to comment on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s protest that the proposed move was a sinister design to target Biharis in the capital, Khanna said: “We never had any intention to cause inconvenience to our brothers coming from various parts of country, particularly Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. It was only intended to create more stable, reliable and safe security environment.”
About the order asking outstation drivers to get endorsed with Delhi licences, Delhi’s top official said: “What I said was that there is some time we have to work out under the purview of the Motor Vehicle Act. I said if people are coming to Delhi and are driving vehicles, then there should be a system.
“If they wish to come and drive permanently, then there is a need to check back that whether they actually have driving skills by testing them at the driving simulators by the Automobile Association of India or Delhi Police’s traffic branch.”