#DPCC SLAMS AAP GOVERNMENT FOR 10 DEATHS IN #DELHI DUE TO COLD

On Jan 23, 2016

DPCC SLAMS AAP GOVERNMENT FOR 10 DEATHS IN DELHI DUE TO COLD—DPCC ASKS KEJRIWAL TO CANCEL BANGALORE TRIP AND ADDRESS THE PROBLEMS OF DELHI—DELHI CONGRESS DISTRIBUTES BLANKETS TO THE HOMELESS.

NEW DELHI, Jan 23—The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee has blamed the Aam Aadmi Party Government for 10 deaths in Delhi due to cold during the last three days, though harsh winter is yet to set in in Delhi, as it was due to the laxity on the part of the Kejriwal Government to take proper precautions to provide night shelter facilities to the homeless in the Capital that led to so many deaths.

Addressing a press conference at the DPCC office, Rajiv Bhawan here today, chief spokesperson Smt. Sharmistha Mukherjee slammed the Kejriwal Government for failing to protect the Right to Life of citizens of Delhi. Ms. Mukherjee said that Shri Kejriwal had made tall promises of providing over 18,000 extra beds in the 252 night shelters across the Capital, but did nothing on that front, and as a result, 10 homeless people died during the brief cold spell in the Capital. Senior leader Shri Chattar Singh and shadow committee members Aman Panwar and Chetanya Singh were also present at the press conference.

Smt. Sharmistha Mukherjee said the AAP Government has so far spent Rs 60 crore out of the Rs 526 crore earmarked in the budget for its self publicity and wanted to know how much money out of the Rs 20 crore allotted has been spent on improving and creating proper, additional facilities in the night shelters. She said the Kejriwal Government only talked big, but did nothing to improve the condition of the night shelters, and has a made a mockery of the plight of the poor. She said to add insult to injury, a member of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board had said that those died were drug addicts and not due to cold. She said this was a reprehensible statement as those died included children, old and a woman in the Shakurbasti slum clusters, and wanted to know were they all drug addicts. The fact of the matter is that the night shelters are over crowded, and they cannot even house half the number of people the government claims they are equipped to house. After the September 22meeting, chaired by the CM to address the issue of preparedness of night shelters, nothing seems to have happened as homeless people start queuing up in order to get space in the night shelters and when they get full, these people are forced to sleep on the streets. Also due to lack of medical facilities in night shelters one old man died.

Smt. Sharmistha Mukherjee said the Delhi Congress is taking out blanket-donation drives across the capital. Congress workers and leaders right from the block level are distributing blankets to the homeless.

Smt. Sharmistha Mukherjee said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had visited the Shakurbasti slum clusters when the Railways bulldozed them and made big promises to the poor people in a bid to derive political capital and open up another front for his confrontation with the Central Government and not because of his genuine concern for those living in the Shakurbasti JJ clusters. She said Kejriwal found time to rush to Hyderabad to make political capital out of the suicide of a student in the Hyderabad University, but has found no time to console the family of the dead woman in Shakurbasti. She said a meeting of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, of which Kejriwal is the chairman, was held on September 22, 2015 to chalk out steps that needed to be taken to provide advance arrangements in night shelters like providing blankets, clothes etc. for the poor, but nothing seems to have been done to prevent the deaths of the poor in the winter cold.

Smt. Sharmistha Mukherjee said the Delhi Government has created an App for the help of the poor, and asked the poor people to download the App in their smart phones and ask the Delhi Government to provide them help, which was a big joke as did Kejriwal expect the poor people to possess smart phones?

Shri Aman Panwar said Kejriwal, by taking his national political ambition forward, was neglecting Governance in Delhi, and asked him to immediately cancel his holiday trip to Bangalore on January 24, and address the pressing problems of Delhi, instead of running away from his responsibilities.