"Imaandaar shaasan" (honest governance)
will be the Bharatiya Janata Party's slogan in the Delhi
assembly election, according to state unit president
Mange Ram Garg and Food and Civil Supplies Minister
Poornima Sethi.
Participating in an election special programme, to be
telecast on Saturday on a private television channel,
the two politicians said the biggest achievement of the
BJP government in the state was that not a single
minister had been charged with corruption in the last
five years.
Refusing to accept the blame for the unprecedented rise
in prices of vegetables, particularly onions, Sethi
argued that Delhi does not produce any onions. Yet, the
state government had managed to keep prices below Rs 50
per kilo, whereas in Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and
Karnataka, where onions are grown, prices range from Rs
60 to Rs 80.
Garg said power consumption in the capital had risen
from 1,550 MW in 1993 (when the BJP came to power) to
2,479 MW now. He said the power plant at Bawana was
opened during the BJP's rule. During Congress rule,
industrial workers had to work at night, he said.
Garg also claimed that 98 per cent of the schools that
were run in tents five years ago had been shifted into
buildings. Five new colleges had been set up and the 10
per cent outlay on education in this year's budget was
the highest so far.
On the water situation, Sethi said that after the Delhi
Jal (water) Board was formed, the number of water
tankers has gone up from 25 five years ago to 400. The
citizens of the capital had been given their rightful
share of water after agreements with Haryana and Uttar
Pradesh, she said.
She claimed that her party had fulfilled 90 per cent of
the promises made in its last election manifesto, and
the others are under the Centre's consideration.
Building by-laws to allow construction of a fourth floor
are being prepared and there is a court stay on giving
ownership rights to residents of illegal colonies, she
said with reference to two major promises that remain
unfulfilled.
Criticising the Congress, Sethi said it did not even
perform its role as an opposition party, and its 18 MLAs
rarely attended the assembly. "They were not present
during the budget and the no-confidence motion. Their
representatives have also not attended business advisory
committee meetings for the last two years," she said.