The Hindu : New Delhi News : Delhi Govt. comes under a scanner

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 22, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Delhi Govt. comes under a scanner

Sujay Mehdudia

Congress Chief Sonia unhappy with performance

NEW DELHI: Suddenly the focus is on the Sheila Dikshit Government in Delhi and its controversial decisions on privatisation of power and water. And watching the performance and its functioning is the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, who is clearly not happy with the power scenario in the Capital and the ongoing talk of proposed privatisation of the water sector at the behest of the World Bank.

The latest to join the bandwagon against the poor power situation and the failure of the Delhi Government to redress the grievances of the consumes and the employees of the erstwhile Delhi Vidyut Board is the Communist Party of India leader, A.B. Bardhan, who has come out strongly against the dominance of the private power discoms and the indifferent attitude of the Delhi Government on the various issues raised by him in the past. Observers are of the view that of late the number of delegations calling on the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, during her traditional public hearing "darbar" with regard to the scrutiny and functioning of the Delhi Government has gone up considerably. So have the communications to the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, on issues facing various categories of people.

Mr. Bardhan was very critical of the manner in which the Chief Minister had paid little attention to the issues raised in the past about victimisation of the employees and withholding of their pensionary benefits under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). It is learnt that Mr. Bardhan pointed to Ms. Gandhi that despite his efforts to bring to the notice of Ms. Dikshit the issues regarding privatisation of power, nothing had moved and the Government did not seem to be listening to anybody else but the private distribution companies. The Joint Action Committee of the Power Department engineers and other employees had also met Ms. Gandhi and brought to her notice various anomalies and the failures of the Delhi Government to resolve the problems faced by him despite repeated reminders and meetings.

Hot on the heels of the meeting on power issues, a delegation of Dalit MLAs met the Congress president and apprised her of the broken promises and neglect of the community by the Delhi Government. It is also understood that the matter of privatisation of water and the role of the Delhi Government and some of its functionaries has also been brought to the notice of Ms. Gandhi. A large number of voluntary groups and NGOs along with the Residents' Welfare Associations are understood to be contemplating reaching out to the Congress president on the moves by the Delhi Government to private basic utilities like water at the behest of the World Bank.

According to highly placed sources, the matter is also likely to figure at the meeting of the National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by Ms. Gandhi in the Capital on July 30.

A number of MLAs have also individually written or sent in representations to the Congress president protesting against the failure of the Delhi Government to tame the private power distribution companies and the continued hike in power tariffs for the third consecutive time in a row that could have an adverse impact on the fortunes of the Congress party in any future electoral battle.

These legislators are also planning to seek an appointment with Ms. Gandhi and take up the matter with the AICC general secretary in-charge of Delhi, Ashok Gehlot, and discuss matters pertaining to power, water and failure to implement promises made in the party's poll manifesto.

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