‘Kejriwal failed to fulfil poll promises’

New Delhi: Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken and six former city ministers launched a scathing attack on chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues for their failure to fulfill the promises they had made in their election manifesto and termed their sit-in at lieutenant-governor (L-G) Anil Baijal’s residence a ploy to divert the attention of people from pressing issues.

They said that the capital was facing an administrative  paralysis and  Mr Kejriwal was trying to hide his failures  by blaming bureaucrats and demanding full statehood status to  Delhi, Mr Maken added.

He said that power minister Satyendra Jain was protesting just because the CBI  was investigating cases against him. And Mr Kejriwal was on a sit-in because the CBI had taken some files from the DJB office, which he heads.

“Both want to divert the attention of the people from the real issues concerning the common man.”

He said the city was facing a strange situation where  the ruling parties — AAP government and BJP-ruled municipal corporations — were holding sit-ins and his party, which was in the opposition, was holding a press conference to raise the issues concerning the common man.

“I must tell you, they (AAP leaders) neither have any intention nor want to get things done. They just want more powers and  that’s why they are pitching for full statehood of Delhi. Had they been concerned about the people of this city, they should have added buses to the ailing DTC fleet, increased the installed capacity of  Delhi Jal Board, opened new schools and hospitals, taken measures to bring down pollution levels, worked for women safety  and ensured there were no frequent power cuts.”

Mr Maken said that the 15-year-old rule of former chief minister Sheila Dikshit had contributed to overall development of the city. “She got things done from the same set of bureaucrats. Where there is will, there is a way. And now Mr Kejriwal says he will campaign for the BJP in LS elections if they grant full statehood to Delhi. That shows his real face. They have no ideological commitment.”  

Former finance minister A.K.Walia said  that Mr Kejriwal knows only confrontational politics. His close associates, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, left him because of this. There are many  MLAs who are against him. Even senior AAP leader Kumar Vishwas is not on good terms with him.

On the education sector, Mr Maken said Delhi clogged 69.36 pass percentage in the government schools in the recent CBSE Board exams, while the national pass percentage was above 86 per cent.

Former city minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said education sector has got nothing to do with statehood issue. “We had brought school dropout rate from 7.2 per cent to 2.1 per cent.

But the dropout rate has again increased to 3.8 per cent. So, why they are claiming they have added 8,000 more classrooms, MR Lovely added.
 
Also, there are one lakh students less in the government schools. For whom they have added these classrooms. Are they giving favours to some contractors ?”

On the transport sector, Mr Lovely said there were 5,800 buses during Ms Dikshit’s tenure. “Now, there are just 3,900 buses.  Even the breakdown rate of these buses has gone up from 3.95 per cent to 4.5 per cent.”

Former city minister Harron Yusuf said that the number of ration card holders has gone down from 33.5 lakh to 15 lakh. “Who is stopping them from  giving more ration cards. And they are crying hoax that they want to provide home delivery to ration card holders.”  About power crisis, he said the city was facing frequent power cuts. “The fixed charges of electricity have been increased five fold.  And about Rs 1,660  crore revenue generated through electricity bills is going directly into the pockets of private discoms.”