Remark on vendors given communal twist, claims PWD Minister Vikramaditya

Reiterating that he was a committed party worker, PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh said on Monday that his statement on the registration and verification of vendors was deliberately given a political and communal colour by connecting it to the policy of Uttar Pradesh.

“Whatever I had said, it was as per the law, and the Centre’s 2014 Act on street vending,” he said, after returning from Delhi, where he met top Congress leaders and explained his stand on the issue. “I have told the party high command that the party line was paramount for us. At the same time, I also told them that raising the issues of the state and protecting its interests was also my responsibility,” he said.

The minister claimed that he was not summoned to Delhi by the party high command in the wake of his comments that kicked up a storm. “As opposed to reports by some sections of the media that I was summoned to Delhi by the party high command, my Delhi visit was scheduled. And whenever I am in Delhi, I always make it a point to meet the top leaders to discuss the issues of the state,” he said.

When told that Sanjay Awasthi, working president of the HPCC, had brushed aside his comments on street vendors as a personal opinion and not that of the government, Vikramaditya remarked that he was answerable only to the party high command, the Chief Minister and the HPCC president.