NDA govt/LG pushing Delhi towards chaos

The BJP-led NDA’s central government and the Lieutenant Governor, through whom it is controlling Delhi, both need to tell the people of the national capital, with whom does the buck stop for the current chaotic situation in the city which has virtually thrown life out of gear.

People are being subjected to endless harassment in all spheres of life – ranging from rapidly deteriorating law and order situation reflected in the alleged rape of two foreign nationals, widespread confusion in admission to various colleges of the Delhi University, complete failure of the corrupt and inefficient Municipal Corporations of Delhi in saving innocent lives due to collapse of unsafe buildings and the inability of the union power ministry and city authorities in ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply in this torrid heat.

The absence of an elected government in Delhi is being used as an excuse by the BJP-led government to run it without any accountability and through the LG, the central government is trying mindless experiments to play with lives of the people.

The Aam Aadmi Party questions the mysterious silence of the Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues, MPs of his party representing Delhi in Parliament and the LG on the current sorry state of affairs in the national capital.

RAPE OF TWO FOREIGN NATIONALS :

The latest shameful incident of the alleged rape of two foreign nationals from the African continent in South Delhi raises serious questions on the law and order situation in the capital. The union home ministry, which controls Delhi Police cannot escape the responsibility on why such horrific incidents repeatedly take place.

Prime Minister Modi, who had made women safety as one of his key election promises during the Lok Sabha campaign cannot look the other way now when such incidents are taking place right under his nose.

The endless hoardings with Mr Modi’s photograph prominently displaying the slogan – Bahut hua naari par atyachar, abki baar Modi sarkar – are still fresh in public memory.

The AAP would like to remind Mr Modi about the speech he gave at Meerut on February 2, during his election campaign. Mr Modi had said :“Delhi needs to be seen as a global city but in the last few days, the kind of language and actions that are being seen, our head is bowed in shame. A few days ago women from Africa were ill treated. This is condemnable.”

What does Mr Modi have to say now, when his government is responsible for the national capital ? Not only Mr Modi, his cabinet colleagues who used to proactively blog about all the issues, seem to have suddenly gone silent.

DELHI UNIVERSITY FIASCO :     

The way the entire issue of rolling back the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) has been handled by the DU authorities and the University Grants Commission, shows there was no application of mind in dealing with the situation.

The students have gone through a nightmare and it is shameful that they had to adopt the path of protests to get every single issue sorted out, including their latest demand of continuation of the B.tech courses.

Not only did the DU and UGC expose their unprofessional functioning, but the human resources development ministry must also own up its share of blame for its poor approach in dealing with the situation.

The DU vice-chancellor and the UGC chairman must immediately step down from the positions owning moral responsibility for the mess created by them and in case they do not do so, the Chancellor and the Visitor must intervene to show them the door for allowing political interference and undermining the autonomy of their institutions.

UPSC ASPIRANTS DEMAND :

The NDA government behaved almost identically to its predecessor the UPA, in dealing with the UPSC aspirants, peacefully protesting for their demand of the scrapping of the civil service aptitude test, which in their view discriminates against students from Hindi medium.

It was extremely shocking that the government allowed four metro stations of central Delhi to be shut, instead of calling the students for talks.

The AAP demands that the growing unrest among the students about the linguistic barriers needs constructive reforms on an urgent basis. The value of Hindi and other Indian languages as medium of UPSC examination cannot be simply eliminated.

ATTEMPTS TO SCUTTLE CAG AUDIT OF DISCOMS :    

Even six months after the Arvind Kejriwal government had ordered the CAG audit of private power distribution companies (discoms), the three discoms are denying access of their account books to the CAG, despite the fact that all their desperate attempts so far to stall the audit have been completely unsuccessful.

It is a matter of shame that now the CAG has been forced to ask the Delhi administration (particularly the LG) to be proactive in ensuring that the discoms do not create any further hurdle in their audit.

The reluctance of the former Shiela Dikshit government in ordering the CAG audit of discoms was understandable, since her Congress government was a partner in the loot done by these discoms.

Her government allowed the discoms to raise electricity tarrifs repeatedly and gave away the government resources to them at throwaway prices.

What is shocking is the behaviour of the union power minister Mr Piyush Goyal. Not only his government miserably failed in ending the long power cuts in the peak summer season, but his entire thrust seems to be on saving the interests of discoms at the cost of common people.

The AAP would like to tell the union power minister Mr Piyush Goyal that the discoms are not providing any charity service to the people of Delhi and they need not be treated with kid gloves.

The role of the central government and the LG is not merely advisory in this matter and the AAP demands that in accordance with the provisions of the existing law, they need to deal sternly with the erring discoms.

It is the right of the people to know the results of the audit, which will result in electricity tariffs coming down in Delhi, and the central government and the LG should not fail in their constitutional duty.

BUILDING COLLPASE IN NORTH DELHI  

The collapse of an old building in Inderlok (North Delhi) on Saturday is a gross example of the state of affairs in the BJP ruled Municipal Corporations. Not only are these corporations a den of corruption, but their nexus with builders mafia is common knowledge.

The silence of the BJP on the loss of innocent lives due to the collapse of this dilapidated structure is only a reflection of the insensitivity of this party towards the issues facing the people of the city.

The AAP demands a judicial probe into how the building collapse took place to find out the reality and fix responsibility by ensuring exemplary punishment for those guilty of lapses that led to this unpardonable incident.

The inquiry announced by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation is meaningless and will serve no purpose since the corporation which is itself responsible for the safety of buildings in its jurisdiction cannot be expected to come out with a fair and impartial finding.