Thousands of Congress workers, under the leadership of Shri Rahul Gandhi, today took out a  march from Rajghat to Delhi Secretariat to protest against the acute power and water shortage in Delhi, holding both the  Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi Government and the BJP-led Central Government squarely responsible for  the plight of the people of Delhi. The massive march was organized by the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, under the leadership of DPCC president Shri Ajay Maken.

 

The Congress workers and leaders started assembling at Rajghat since afternoon, and by 6.30 p.m, thousands of people had filled up Rajghat for the protest march, led by Shri Rahul Gandhi, Shri Ajay Maken and other senior leaders of the party.The protestors carried  party flags and banners against the AAP and BJP Governments for their failure to address the power and water problems in Delhi.

 

Shri Rahul Gandhiji’s speech in today’s protest march:

 

“There are some people, those  who are few, but there are those whom you can make  fool all the time. It can also happen that you can make fool of everyone once or twice, but it cannot happen that you can make fool of everyone all the time.  This is the time of internet, this is the time of  television, and this is the time of selfie, but in Hindustan, Modiji and Kejriwal think that they can make fool of  every  Hindustani every time. Here in Delhi, Kejriwalji talked about electricity, but I remember those days when he used to join the electricity lines and said that he would bring electricity, but today there is no electricity in Delhi, as one after another, there are power cuts, and there is water crisis. And Kejriwalji sometimes talks about odd-even and sometimes about pollution, but does not do any work. For two years here is  Kejriwalji and there is Modiji. The whole country is reeling under drought…in Vidharbha, in Maharashtra…in Marathwada, farmers are commiting suicide…killing themselves, but today at India Gate, there is two-year celebration is being held, people from Bollywood have come…dance and songs are being held. One says that brother if you want a clean Bharat, then take a broom in your hand, you will get a clean Bharat…The second one says that I will bring electricity by joining the wires. But now you can see the reality in Delhi and Hindustan. Today labourers and sanitation workers can  see the reality, because the people of India  understands the truth. Someone told me that those people who keep Delhi clean, the force that keep Delhi clean, when they went to the Delhi Chief Minister and placed their demands before him, the Chief Minister told them to take one month’s salary from him, and after that I will not give you anything. If some one can talk like this, he will not be able to understand the difficulties of the sanitation workers…their worries and pains. Poor people, sanitation workers, labourers and those who run small shops  suffer when politics of selfie and television are played. I always say that if you want to change this country, we have to bring poor to the mainstream and we have to understand them. We need not  make false promises and we have to adhere to truth. There is great difference between me and these politicians as I follow the ideology of Gandhiji. I cannot do the politics of lies even if the people of the country tell me to do so….it is not in me. Probably, I have suffered losses as what I think I do, I don’t make false promises. Slowly, slowly the people of Delhi and this country are understanding that this country cannot progress on false and hollow promises. This country can progress only by sweat and blood. I want to appeal to the Congress workers that people may say anything to you, but our worker is neither the worker of public relation or publicity. Your party is not the party of budget and publicity…one uses the budget of Rs 526 crore for publicity in Delhi  and another, Modiji has a budget of crores of rupees in his hands. Our party is not the party of budget. It is also not the party of PR agency…I want to tell you that you are going to see the same results in the Coporation elections which you saw in the recent Corporation elections. Congress party in Delhi also knows how to work, it does not make false promises. Congress party knows how to work for electricity and water, it also knows how to help poor people. This party will rule here, there is no need to worry. You are having great future”.

 

Addressing the Congress workers, Shri Ajay Maken expressed his thanks to Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji for playing proactive roles in the affairs affecting the people of Delhi, whether joining the striking sanitation workers in 45 degreee heat or other major issues.

 

Shri Ajay Maken said Delhi has been experiencing unscheduled power cuts and acute water shortage as both Delhi CM Shri Arvind  Kejriwal and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi are fighting between themselves and  feathering their own political nests without tackling the pressing problems of Delhi. Shri Maken said though the average demand for power last week was 5655 Mega Watt, and the installed generation capacity in Delhi is 2917MW, the average generation from this installed capacity last week was only 898MW, which resulted in most parts of Delhi facing power cuts for long hours. This means that only 30.78 per cent of the generation capacity within Delhi is being utilized, as no efforts are being made by the Delhi GENCO and the Central Government-controlled NTPC to provide 100 per cent of the installed capacity. He said the NTPC-run Badarpur Thermal Plant was producing power much below its installed capacity while the Bawana Gas Turbine of the Delhi Government was producing power below its installed capacity due to the non-availability of gas, as the Kejriwal Government has done nothing to get enough gas from the Central Government to run the Bawana plant to its full capacity.

 

Shri Maken said since the generation capacity within Delhi is so low, the only way is to transmit power from outside the Capital, but capacity constraint is there too. He said the maximum capacity of transmission lines is not more than 4500MW, and as soon as the demand goes up from 5300MW, the system is unable to bear the load. He said sadly, no major effort has been put into improve the transmission in the last two years. He said four 400kv   sub stations at Rajghat, Tughlakkabad, Dwarka and Karampura were to be installed, but due to the slackness of the Delhi government, and at some places land issues between the Delhi Government and the DDA, these projects have got stuck.

 

Shri Maken said while the responsibility of the DISCOMS to provide uninterrupted power should never be undermined, the role of the power departments of the Delhi Government and the Union Government also needs to be scrutinized. The generation and transmission is to be dealt by the Government-owned PSUs.

 

Shri Maken said in 1998, when the Congress-led government came to power in Delhi, there used to be “power riots”. He said Delhi had 56% of theft in power, amounting to Rs 4200 crores. Thus power reforms were initiated. He said these power reforms, appreciated by then President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in his address to Parliament in 2003, brought uninterrupted power supply to Delhi at one of the lowest rates in India, and the lowest transmission losses (theft). He said the last two years have seen the gains of power reforms erode fast, due to primarily responsible factors such as: confused regulator unable to rein-in power companies and no initiative by the Government-owned Transmission and Generation companies.

 

Shri Maken said the draft notification for changes in Delhi Electric Supply Code and Performance Standards to compensate consumers suffering on power outages was issued by the DERC in June last year, and the last date for seeking views had been extended four times, yet the final notification is still to come. However, it has not deterred Kejriwalji to announce twice in the last one year that the consumers facing unscheduled power cuts would be monetarily compensated. Shri Maken said the DTL (Delhi Transco Ltd.) website does not give the OCC (Operation Co-ordination Committee meeting) minutes beyond 2014, therefore no one knows the commitments of DTL and its achievements.

 

Shri Maken said Delhi was suffering acute water shortage  because of Kejriwal’s soaring Punjab ambitions. He said wrong affidavit filed in the apex court on the SYL issue has sealed Delhi’s fate to get 120,000 cusecs of water every day as against the just 1200 cusecs which Delhi is presently getting from Haryana. He said Kejriwal’s promise of giving 700 litres of free water to every household has fallen flat, as people are even struggling to get water  for  drinking purposes. Shri Maken said 70 per cent of Delhi’s water comes from the Munak canal and the Western Yamuna Canal, which is around 1200 cusecs or .002 MAF (Million Acre Feet). But when the SYL canal becomes operational, the water share of Delhi would be 0.2 MAF (or 120,000 cusecs), which is 100 times more than what Delhi is presently getting from Haryana. Shri Maken said for this reason, in all previous affidavits on this matter before the Supreme Court, the GNCTD had in a way supported the SYL canal “but unfortunately, Delhi is being made to suffer  because of Kejriwal’s soaring Punjab ambitions”.

 

Shri Maken explained that Shri Kejriwal, in his affidavit of 22nd April, had withdrawan the previous affidavits/ submissions, and instead of using this opportunity before the apex court to press for implementation of the SYL canal, which would help Delhi in a big way, he has stated that “the dispute of conveyance system is between Haryana and Punjab in which Delhi has no comments”.

 

Shri Maken said while in certain areas of Delhi, the situation is drought-like as even driking water is scarce, Kejriwal was indulging in political stunts like talking of  sending “water trains” to the drought-hit Latur in Maharashtra. He said it was indeed very unfortunate that Kejriwal was indulging in such gimmicks instead of serving the people of Delhi, who gave him a massive mandate of 67 out of 70 seats in the last Assembly elections.