Each vote for the Congress in Delhi in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls would be a vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) of the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, during the same interaction, took live questions and grievances from the audience related to civic and governance issues, and gave directions to resolve several of them, the party claimed in a statement.
Increased allocation
“The Aam Aadmi Party believes strongly in the power and potential of decentralisation as envisioned for RWAs. This dialogue between the government and RWAs will help resolve many problems,” the AAP’s East Delhi Lok Sabha incharge Atishi Marlena said.
“While the AAP government has notched up several achievements in electricity, water, power and education sectors, there is still some work to be done,” she said in relation to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Meanwhile, the AAP national convener also encouraged the RWAs to adopt local parks and gardens to increase the green cover in the city. He praised the role of the RWAs in ensuring the maintenance of parks in societies. In keeping with their demands, the government has, he announced, decided to increase allocation to RWAs by 10%. The RWAs must keep up the good work of maintenance, he said, as the civic bodies were never going to step up.
Mr. Kejriwal also blamed the BJP-controlled civic bodies for ‘East Delhi’s garbage crisis’ which, he alleged, was ‘a direct result of municipal corporation’s corruption and inefficiency’.
“BJP-run civic bodies are a den of corruption. The money for salaries of sanitation workers is being diverted to contractors. The AAP government has released ₹770 crore to the East body so far this year…Sanitation workers are being penalised for no fault of theirs by the BJP, because it wants to malign the elected government of Delhi and it has no concern for the sufferings of the people,” he alleged.
Alleging that the BJP was ‘campaigning for the Congress in Delhi to split AAP’s votes, Mr. Kejriwal said had the AAP had seven MPs from Delhi, the BJP government at the Centre would not have been able to hike metro fares.
“We would not have let them unleash the sealing drive. I urge you to not repeat the mistake made in 2014. AAP is the only party that has worked for your welfare…When I talk to people they say Modi has ruined us, he introduced demonetisation, GST and unleashed sealing. Our business is ruined, but what is the choice? We do not want to vote for Rahul Gandhi,” the CM said.
The only ‘real alternative’ that the voters of Delhi had, Mr. Kejriwal argued, was the AAP. “There are a huge number of people who want to defeat Modi. But I caution them that they should not make the mistake of voting for the Congress. Every vote to the Congress will strengthen the BJP in Delhi,” he added.