Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party for turning the city into the “garbage capital of India”.
“There are two models of governance in Delhi before the eyes of the people,” Kejriwal said, referring to the saffron party’s control of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Delhi Police. “Be it education, sanitation, health or finance, BJP’s MCD has failed miserably.”
The Aam Aadmi Party tweeted a “report card” of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, and compared it with the areas of governance under the control of the state government. “BJP MCD has made Delhi the garbage capital of India with open dhalaos [dumps] in every corner of the city,” Kejriwal said at a press conference. “Delhi MCDs are in the bottom 10 of the 49 large cities rated for cleanliness by the government of India in December 2019.”
The chief minister said this year the Ghazipur landfill would become taller than the Taj Mahal. “This is a fitting legacy of 13 years of BJP’s rule in MCD,” Kejriwal added.
Kejriwal said public toilets under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi were “non-existent”. He claimed 80% to 90% of the toilets have no water and electricity, no security staff, and remain locked. “Whereas, we built 20,000 new and well maintained public toilets through DUSIB [Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board],” the chief minister added.
Kejriwal said 109 Municipal Corporation of Delhi schools were closed in the last nine years, and enrolment in municipality schools had declined. Moreover, the infrastructure of these schools was in a “complete mess”, he added. “Children sit on the floor in 100 North MCD schools,” Kejriwal claimed. “Recently, the plaster of a school ceiling in East MCD fell down injuring several children.”
The chief minister also claimed that parents had stopped sending their children to Municipal Corporation of Delhi schools because of their “pathetic state and lack of maintenance”. Meanwhile, Delhi government schools, Kejriwal said, had done very well. As a result, now there is an increased preference for government schools, he added. The chief minister said a study showed that 74% of Municipal Corporation of Delhi school students who have passed Class 5 cannot read Hindi.
Kejriwal said that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has reported that the Delhi government is the only state administration that is making a profit. “The Wazirpur flyover was to be constructed at a cost of 3,500 crore, we did it in Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,250 crore,” the chief minister said. “We have saved expenditure everywhere.”
Assembly elections all 70 of Delhi’s seats will be held on December 8. The results will be out on December 11. In 2015, AAP won 67 out of 70 seats, getting 54% of the vote. On the other hand, the BJP won just three seats, and the Congress nil.
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