The Hindu : New Delhi News : Address false and misleading: BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 16, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Address false and misleading: BJP

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 15. The Delhi BJP president, Harsh Vardhan, has described the address of the Lieutenant-Governor, B.L. Joshi, in the Delhi Legislative Assembly today as false and misleading and a slur on the national theme of "Satyamev Jayate".

"While the Lieutenant-Governor has again promised to make Delhi a world class city, the reality is that the innocent citizens are being killed by stray bulls, the transport system is slow and fatal and Delhi is being called the haven for rapists," the BJP leader charged.

Stating that corruption was rampant in the Delhi Government and persons taking bribe were now being increasingly caught on camera as well, Dr. Vardhan claimed that the Chief Minister, several Ministers, and a number of Congress MLAs and Municipal Councillors were now under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The Delhi BJP president said it had been falsely stated in the address that the 140 million gallon per day capacity Sonia Vihar water treatment plant would become operational soon as the truth was that the governments of Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh had refused to supply water for it.

In the power sector, he said, while Mr Joshi talked about improvement, the power companies had shown losses of about Rs 2,400 crores and were going to use the pretext to increase the tariffs by 64 per cent. "This will be the fourth increase in rates," he lamented.

Dr. Vardhan said the other "important" area of transport was in an equally bad shape with about seven persons losing their lives on the city roads each day and the average speed of travel being a meagre 12 km per hour.

Pointing out that in the name of participation, privatisation was being encouraged, Dr. Vardhan said while the Lieutenant-Governor had also talked about the constitution of School Welfare Committees to watch the schools, the irony was that principals of government schools were being caught raping students.

The BJP leader was also critical of the fact that only six lines were written on the villages of Delhi in Mr Joshi's speech. The villagers, he said, were agitated as heavy house tax has been imposed on them and even orders of attachment have been issued. Noting that after 1908 the area of Lal Dora has not been increased, he said the dairy operators are also being gradually uprooted.

On the issue of cleaning of the Yamuna, he said while the Lieutenant-Government had mentioned the start of the second phase, it was difficult to comprehend if any work was carried out in the first as the river has been reduced to a dirty drain. Also, he said, the Lieutenant Governor had for some reason not named the neighbouring State that he claimed was being persuaded for disposal of the city's garbage.

In the financial arena, he said, while there was a claim about the increase in recovery of revenue, in reality the revenue had only decreased. Also, he charged that the Lieutenant-Governor had in the address openly declared that VAT would be implemented this year and thereby overlooked the genuine demands of the traders. Finally, in the context of Bawana, Dr. Vardhan said while Mr Joshi had spoken about making it a high level industrial area, the fact of the case was that even basic amenities were lacking there.

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