R.D. Bhardwaj “Noorpuri”
During the last one month so many changes have taken place giving political scenario completely a new look and dimension. Elections to the five states have saddled new leaders in the positions of power. But the most surprising personality which has spearheaded in a big manner in the capital city – Arvind Kejriwal, has stunned many leaders and old political parties alike. His AAP party which came into existence just fifteen months ago, has uprooted many big and powerful leaders in Delhi, including three term old mighty former Delhi Chief Minister, Mrs. Sheila Dikshit, who just 5/6 months ago used to sarcastically remark, “I feel it below dignity to make any comment on him”.
The obvious reasons for Kejriwal’s meteoric rise to name, fame and seat of power are – his strait forwardness, honesty, aligning his policies and ideologies with the problems and perceptions of common people, his keeping in touch with them through a number of mediums and also keeping them abreast with his moves and manoeuvres etc. That is why when he defeated Sheila Dikshit with a big margin, people celebrated his victory in a big manner, as the former Chief Minister of Delhi had miserably lost grip of peoples’ problems and her party had also started alienating common people as if they are totally unconcerned about them.
As in Delhi, nether neither BJP nor Congress got sufficient seats to form the next government, BJP with their highest number of seats also declined to stake claim to take the next move. Then obviously the responsibility fell on AAP, who after taking the opinion from their voters and supporters came forward and formed the government with the outside support of the Congress party. It is really a good and welcome sign that Kejriwal and his party believes in participatory democracy and takes opinion of his electorates through telecom and electronic media. That is how Arvind Kejriwal took oath of office on the 28th December, 2013 at Ramlila Maidan and comparatively a new and novice party has come to power. Not only that, it also won the vote of confidence just within six day of taking charge.
Now both the big parties are making a lot of hue and cry and provoking AAP to fulfil people’s hopes and aspirations as promised by them through their manifesto. But here again Kejriwal stunned not only their political competitors but also the voters of Delhi by declaring that all consumers of Delhi shall get 20 KLs of water free every month provided they have their water metres functional. Not only that, AAP has also kept its 2nd biggest election promise to slash the electricity bills by 50% for the consumers who use upto 400 units. Going by the speed of their keeping election promises and taking the requisite decisions, it looks as if Kejriwal Government shall honestly try to fulfil most of their promises and win people’s trust in a much better manner, as it also says that it will soon bring Jan Lokpal bill to take care of corruption related cases which are increasing day by day and all previous governments have been giving cold-shoulders to this otherwise such a serious matter, for the obvious reasons.
The Kejriwal Effect : Taking stock of things and also being threatened by the Kejriwal effect, now even the UPA government at Centre has given indications that the subsidised nine LPG cylinders to the BPL families, may be hiked to twelve. Not only that, now even Rahul Gandhi has strongly condemned the Maharshtra government’s decision to throw away the enquiry report on Adarsh Housing Scam in Mumbai, as his party is feeling the heat of people’s angst and ire of wide spread corruption, malpractices and wrong doings of its successive governments. It is pertinent to mention here that the said report has indicted three of its Chief Ministers of Maharashtra for manipulating to grab costly flats in the Adarsh Housing Scheme, where flats were originally planned to be allotted to the families of army officers killed in the Kargil war. The Congress government in Haryana has also announced a rebate of Rs. 200/- to each consumer in their electricity bills. The UPA government is likely to announce more people friendly schemes during the next couple of months as next Lok Sabha elections are fast approaching. The governments in other states are also introspecting their policies and practices so as to minimise the Kejriwal effect in their states in such a manner that slippage of political ground to this new party could be curtailed.
Some Measures for Dwarka : As the AAP government has already given some reliefs and concessions to the citizens of Delhi, people living in the sub-city of Dwarka are feeling left out.
It is pertinent to mention here that the sub-city of Dwarka is the biggest colony of not only India, but also of entire Asia, having an area of around 56 Sq. Kms. It has around 350 Group Housing Societies and 250 DDA colonies, but neither DDA nor Delhi Jal Board is catering to the water requirement needs of group housing societies here. Water mafia is running a parallel government here as they sell water to these Societies at exorbitant rates convenient to them. Many a time the matter was brought to the notice of the previous Sheila Dikshit Government, but hardly any action was taken on the water mafia operating here, for the obvious reasons. Since now the Kejriwal government has been saddled by the people, we urge upon him to take punitive action on water mafia and investigate its nexus with the officers in Delhi Jal Board. But, first of all, arrangements should also be made to make sufficient quantity of water available to the Dwarkaites as well, at par with their fellow Delhi residents (20 KLs free water per month), as failure to do so shall amount to discrimination and disparity with the people living in Dwarka. Needless to mention here that water is certainly there, and that is why water tankers keep on ferrying water in one sector or another throughout the day in whole of Dwarka.
Secondly, as Dwarka is a big city, 4/5 DTC buses should be put on different routes to ply within various Sectors of Dwarka, as there is a big scarcity of transport facility for the people to commute between one sector to another.
Thirdly, there are no street lights in some sectors in Phase II here and that is why it is very risky to travel after sun-set. All the sectors in phase II also should be properly flooded with street lights to make the Dwarkaites feel safe and secure, particularly for the females.
Fourthly, there is also scarcity of proper markets in various sectors in phase II. Areas have been earmarked by DDA for the construction of shops, but either markets have not been constructed, or shops are built but not allotted. As such, the Kejriwal Government is requested to please look into this problem and instruct DDA to make sure that the market areas are not only properly developed, but shops are also allotted expeditiously and other relevant facilities are also put in place properly, as in the absence of the same, one or two big shops functioning here and there fleece the customers in a big way.
