The Hindu : New Delhi News : Congress fails to honour poll promises

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 29, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Congress fails to honour poll promises

By Lalit K. Jha

NEW DELHI, DEC. 28. The Congress, which has crossed the halfway mark of its five-year rule in Town Hall here, seems to have "completely forgotten'' the promise it made to Delhiites before coming to power in April 2002. The electorate had voted the Bharatiya Janata Party out of power and given the Congress a record number of seats in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in the hope that it would provide a transparent and corruption-free civic administration. However, 33 months into its tenure, transparent and corruption-free governance seems a distant dream.

Not only has every fourth engineer in the MCD been charge-sheeted or suspended for corruption, three of the party's Councillors, including a top leader, have been caught "red handed taking bribe" by the Central Bureau of Investigation. While the very first line of the Congress manifesto under the heading "Our Mission" talks of creating a clean, pollution-free and modern Delhi through `Bhagidari', its Councillors are now openly talking against this much-acclaimed public-government partnership initiative of the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit.

Barring a few, an overwhelming majority of the promises made in the party manifesto remains unfulfilled till date. With nearly 27 months left for the next civic elections in the Capital, no effort has been made to implement the manifesto honestly. The manifesto had listed civic cleanliness, solid waste management and development and maintenance of roads as a top priority. While even Congress Councillors conceded that there has been no improvement in cleanliness, except for a few VIP areas, solid waste management continues to be a big unsolved problem for the Capital. Official statistics reveal that during this financial year not a single km of road has been re-laid or improved. The words in the Congress manifesto hold true even today: "There has been no dearth of financial resources. The present depleted conditions of roads in Delhi are primarily on account of lack of political will, direction and rampant corruption in the MCD."

The Congress is yet to look into the commitment it made to improve the condition of roads by changing over to a new technology in this field in the very first year of its rule. While the ruling party has managed to bring in the people-friendly Unit Area System for self-assessment of house tax, which has completely eliminated inspector-raj, there is no move to issue passbook and smart cards as promised in the manifesto to all property owners of the Capital. Such a card, Delhiites were told, would include all information regarding house tax and the basis of assessment.

Providing cooked mid-day meal to all 10 lakh students daily and making arrangements for computer education, besides replacing schools running from tents by pre-fabricated structure is of course no mean achievement, but there has been no improvement in the quality of education imparted here besides other facilities like drinking water, toilets and electricity.

As during the BJP rule, the MCD continues to distribute sweaters to its students after the winter is over. Official reports have revealed that the health of municipal students have deteriorated in the past two years in the absence of a proper health care facilities. Senior Congress leaders said the MCD was now unlikely to set up a "Pratibha School'' (Modern School) in each ward for brilliant children; a promise made by it before coming to power.

Primary health care facilities, one of the obligatory functions of the MCD, have been the worst hit during the Congress rule. Instead of providing a special card for people below poverty line for free medical treatment in its dispensaries and hospitals and giving special medication and allowances to poor pregnant women, the Congress has imposed a new registration fee.

While doctors are mostly found absent from duty, medicines are rarely available for the poor at its dispensaries and hospitals.

Going against its free-license policy to hawkers and rickshaw pullers, the civic body has brought in a new license system and put a restriction on the number of rickshaws on city roads, thus bringing in a new inspector-raj for the poor people. Not only has the Congress forgotten its promise to provide special facilities to dhobis, barbers and cobblers, but even the promised pension scheme for eunuchs of the city is yet to be formulated.

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