The Hindu : Sahib accuses Sheila Govt. of `all-round failure'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 21, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sahib accuses Sheila Govt. of `all-round failure'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 20. The Union Labour Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, who is also the Member of Parliament from Outer Delhi, today lashed out at the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, for what he called "all-round failure'' and held her Government responsible for the ongoing water and power crisis in the Capital.

"This Government is anti-poor and is least interested in regularisation of unauthorised colonies in the Capital," Mr. Verma charged at a Press conference. "The Congress Government has not submitted to the Union Government a list of unauthorised colonies to be regularised in the Capital. We have written as many as 15 letters asking for the list. But there has been no response," he said, alleging that the Delhi Government has not yet come out with a report on the aerial survey of unauthorised colonies carried out two years ago.

Referring to his interaction with people while campaigning for the elections in Outer Delhi which has the maximum number of unauthorised colonies, he said: "Water, power and house tax are three major problems being faced by the people today. The power and water situation is deteriorating with every passing day. It is very acute in unauthorised and resettlement colonies and slum clusters."

Conceding that he himself failed to understand why the people overwhelmingly voted for the Congress in the recently held Delhi Assembly elections despite its alleged failure on all fronts, Mr. Verma listed out the failures of the Sheila Government. "This Government is not interested in the development of the Capital. All the projects, be it the construction of roads, flyovers, metro rail or new hospitals, were initiated during our rule from 1993 to 1998," he said.

Referring to the water crisis, he claimed that the number of water tankers of the Delhi Jal Board had come down from about 1,300 in 1998 to less than 800 now. "Several key water distribution projects have been held up due to this inefficient administration," he said. "In the power sector, except for Pragati Power, no other project has taken off.''

Accusing the Congress Government of neglecting the rural areas of the Capital, he said the Mini Master Plan for this part of the Capital has not been implemented. "No one knows about this. Development work in the rural areas have come to a standstill," he claimed.

Giving details of his poll preparedness, Mr. Verma said he has created a work force of about 20,000 volunteers and party workers who would be managing the 3,500 polling booths in Outer Delhi constituency. "We require 15,000 more volunteers so that we have at least 10 workers at each polling booth," he said.

The number of voters in the Outer Delhi constituency has increased by 1.5 lakhs. "Most of the new voters are from Rohini and Dwarka or the unauthorised colonies," he said.

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