The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sheila accuses BJP of misleading people

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Wednesday, Dec 24, 2008
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New Delhi

Sheila accuses BJP of misleading people

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

‘It is continuing with propaganda after defeat in Assembly polls’

‘People will not be fooled by the BJP campaign on water and power’
BJP charged with allowing the Statehood Bill to lapse when it was in power

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Assembly on Tuesday passed the Motion of Thanks to the Lieutenant Governor’s address after a combative Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in her final reply during the debate accused the BJP of misleading the people on the issues of water, power and Bus Rapid Transit and continuing with the propaganda after the loss in the recent Assembly elections as well.

Ms Dikshit said the Government wanted the Lieutenant Governor’s address to be brief as it would be coming out with all the details in the Budget.

She said people will not be fooled by the BJP campaign on water and power. As for BRT, Ms Dikshit said of the 400 km of PWD road in Delhi, only 5 km had been taken for the project on an experimental basis.

Terming the project as “the only solution to Delhi’s traffic”, she said besides Bogota – that had been pointed by Leader of Opposition V.K. Malhotra – this system also existed in London, Paris and other important cities under different names and in various forms.

On the issue of Statehood, she said a special status has been sought for Delhi and charged the BJP of allowing the Bill on the subject to lapse when it was in power.

“It lapsed before you and now you are only doing politics on this,” she said, adding that Delhi Government is asking for DDA to be brought under it.

On Afzal Guru, she said he is in jail and his mercy petition – on whether he gets life of death – is yet to be decided by the President and Ministry of Home Affairs.

As for the Commonwealth Games, the Chief Minister said “it is the city which gets it and it plays a major role”. Rest, everything is meaningless.

Power distribution

Since Prof. Malhotra had also made a mention of the power distribution companies seeking a hike in tariffs and had cautioned against the move, Ms. Dikshit – who now also has charge of Power with her -- said ``the regulators will bring the proposals and we have to see if the rates will be accepted”.

At this Prof. Malhotra demanded that she should ensure that the rates will not be hiked. But not taking the bait, Ms Dikshit said: “No Government would want the rates to go up.”

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