New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS): In the run-up to February 5 Delhi Assembly elections, AAP National Convener and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday promised to provide funds for the hiring of private security guards by Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs).

Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said the private security guard proposal would enhance public security which has been a priority for the ruling party that had earlier installed CCTV cameras and colony gates.

“The security guard proposal is based on feedback received from people. It is timely as people are feeling insecure due to a spurt in crime in the city,” he said, accusing the BJP’s Central government of not doing enough to check crime in the city.

“The BJP may not be worried about the residents of Delhi but for us citizens are like family, and we want to give them a sense of security,” he said.

He said now the Delhi government will fund RWAs for hiring private security guards and the number of security guards in each colony will be based on the number of families in the RWA.

Kejriwal said hiring private security guards by RWAs is just a measure to instill a feeling of safety among residents and in no manner an attempt to “replace police who are responsible for providing security”.

The AAP National Convener hoped the posting of private security guards would help regulate the movement of unauthorised persons in colonies and prevent petty crimes.

The former Chief Minister also slammed the BJP for holding protests against him over the “Purvanchali insult” issue.

“I had gone to the Election Commission of India on Thursday to highlight that under the garb of Rohingya and Bangladeshis, they are deleting names of Purvanchali voters. But, in turn, they are leveling baseless charges against me. If there is a party that has respected and given a life of dignity to people from Purvanchal in Delhi, it is the AAP,” said Kejriwal.

Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said that Kejriwal’s remarks on Thursday, where he called people from Purvanchal “fake voters,” have once again revealed the dark truth of his mindset.

About 42 per cent Delhi’s 1.55 crore voters are Purvanchalis or migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and their votes influence the result in almost half of the city’s 70 Assembly constituencies. Key seats with Purvanchali voters include Burari, Laxmi Nagar, Dwarka, etc.