The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Congress, BJP have made life miserable'

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Sunday, Mar 25, 2007
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New Delhi

`Congress, BJP have made life miserable'

Staff Reporter

Left parties appeal to voters to reject the two parties in the forthcoming civic body elections

NEW DELHI: The Left parties contesting the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections have appealed to the Capital's voters to reject the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress that have been ruling in the State over the years and also controlling the MCD in turns "but have made the life of the people miserable by not providing them with basic amenities and proper infrastructure".

In a statement, the four Left parties -- the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the CPI, the All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party -- have stated that the Master Plans for Delhi from 1961-62 onward have been violated all along and this has led to chaos. Now, they said, the working and toiling masses face the threat of losing their livelihood while many rickshaw-pullers, rehri-patriwallahs, vendors and hawkers are facing displacement.

As such, the Left leaders said, the coming MCD elections would be an opportunity for the people to vote for a change. They appealed to the people to vote for Left candidates in the 25 seats they are contesting and for non-BJP, non-Congress secular candidates both within and outside the Pragatisheel Jan Morcha in the other constituencies.

While the CPI is contesting 13 seats, the CPI (M) has fielded its candidates for seven, the AIFB for four and the RSP for one. The 25 Left candidates include as many as 13 women candidates.

Corrupt nexus

Holding the failure of respective governments, the MCD and the Delhi Development Authority to provide adequate housing and commercial spaces responsible for the present state of affairs in the Capital, the Left leaders -- Amarjeet Kaur of the CPI, P.M.S. Grewal of CPI (M), Dharmendra Verma of AIFB and Asit Ganguly of RSP -- charged that there was also a nexus between land mafia and corrupt officials in the police and bureaucracy and some politicians that has made matters worse.

Stating that over 40,000 families of slum dwellers, whose tenements had been demolished, were awaiting alternate housing sites, the Left leaders said likewise residents of unauthorised colonies, and small shopkeepers and traders were facing problems due to the mistakes of others.

They said while on the one hand small scale and cottage industries were facing a crisis, on the other clean drinking water, proper sewerage and drainage remain a big issue for a vast majority of the people in various colonies.

The Left parties also decried attempts at privatisation of water and charged that privatisation of power distribution had led to inflated bills in many areas without an improvement in power supply. Likewise, they expressed concern at poor health facilities and deteriorating ration system and soaring prices of essential commodities.

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