DJB vice chairman is new Delhi Law Minister

 Delhi Jal Board vice chairman Kapil Mishra was on Wednesday named as the city’s new Law Minister.

He will replace outgoing minister Jitender Singh Tomar who resigned from his post amid allegations that his law degree was fake.

Later in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia met Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung to propose Mishra’s name for the post.

A letter has also been sent to President Pranab Mukherjee in this regard.
Mishra, 35, MLA from north-east Delhi’s Karawal Nagar, was placed in the Jal Board to help execute the Aam Aadmi Party’s free water scheme.

The party in its second tenure has continued with its scheme of providing 20 kilolitre of free water monthly to all households.

He is also said to have reworked the AAP government’s strategy to deal with water tanker mafias.

Sources in the AAP suggest that his elevation came as Kejriwal was happy with his stint in the Jal Board.

Earlier, the first-time legislator had made headlines by beginning an in-house campaign for the ouster of now-expelled AAP leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav.
On his Facebook page, he described himself as a “political activist and social entrepreneur”.

Sources say in the race for the Law Minister’s post were former Greater Kailash MLA and former Transport Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj and Chandni Chowk MLA Alka Lamba. As a legislator, he had also raised issues such as the exploitation of Yamuna during the Commonwealth Games.

Tomar was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly producing a fake submitting forged documents, including fake BSc and LLB degrees, to the Bar Council of Delhi for registering himself as an advocate. However, he insists that he had been framed.