Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday said that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was denied permission to attend an event in Denmark because it was for "mayor-level" participants.
Earlier, Kejriwal was scheduled to travel to Denmark in an eight-member delegation for C40 Climate Summit which is to be held during 9-12 October in Copenhagen. Leaders from cities such as New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles and Berlin have graced the climate summit.
"This is a mayor-level conference and a Bengal minister is going to participate in it," Javadekar said at a press meet on cabinet announcements in New Delhi.
Further making it clear, Javadekar said that there is a separate protocol when political functionaries like chief ministers are invited.
Last month in an official statement, Delhi government had announced that the Delhi CM would address the C-40 climate change summit and speak on his government's efforts to lower the levels of pollution in the national capital by 25 per cent.
After government's denial to grant him permission to travel to Denmark, AAP hit out at the centre and accused it of showing off hostility towards the Kejriwal government.
The senior leader of Aam Aadmi Party and Rajya Sabha member, Sanjay Singh told news agency ANI, “It is very unfortunate that the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is behaving this way. This was not a private visit of the chief minister. He was going to address a conference and talk about the steps the government had taken to reduce pollution by 25%. This was an opportunity to showcase the national capital. Permission for this was sought 1.5 months ago, but still, no permission was granted."
He alleged that the other ministers, including deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and health minister Satyendra Jain, had also faced similar hostility earlier.
However, permission was granted to West Bengal urban development minister Firhad Hakim to attend the Denmark summit.
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