The Hindu : Sheila rules out division of Delhi for Statehood

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 24, 2002

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Sheila rules out division of Delhi for Statehood

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI DEC. 23. Ruling out territorial division of Delhi as a precondition for Statehood, the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today said she was still awaiting a response from the Union Home Ministry to the "consensus document'' sent by her Government on the Statehood issue nearly two months ago. " The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K.Advani, is yet to send us his views on our approach and what would be the next step.''

``The ball is clearly in the court of the BJP-led Central Government. They have to approach us with the various options that could be exercised. But keeping in mind the response time of the Union Home Ministry, it is unlikely that the Statehood Bill will be introduced even during the Budget session of Parliament. We have done our bit and now it is for the NDA Government to respond. The Delhi BJP president, Madan Lal Khurana, should take up the matter with his own Government and seek a reply on the delay,'' she asserted.

Ms. Dikshit made it clear that her Government or party did not favour division of Delhi which had been provided in the 1998 draft document of the Delhi Re-organisation Bill. "I had raised the issue at the National Development Council meeting on Saturday that Delhi should have more administrative powers and restructuring of the entire financial as well as social structure in order to provide an efficient and effective State machinery. My Government is for giving more powers to Delhi and bringing under it various civic agencies including DDA and MCD and not for dividing the people on territorial basis,'' she added.

Ms. Dikshit said as part of the consultation process and generating public opinion on what kind of Statehood do the people of Delhi want, a seminar had was being organised on January 11. A large number of experts, eminent citizens, senior citizens and professionals would be invited for the seminar to speak out on what they expect the new State to be.

This would be followed by another public opinion building exercise and then it further movement of the Statehood talks would depend on the response of the Central Government which so far has not been very encouraging. Ms.Dikshit said that it was under the Congress Government that the skyline of Delhi got a new look as a series of flyovers were commissioned to ease traffic congestion.

Apart from this, the quality of air had improved dramatically with the public transport system adopting the CNG mode. Rejecting the charge that it the Central Government or the DDA which had built the flyovers over the past four years, the Chief Minister said the condition of the DDA flyovers was not hidden from anybody.

The work is running behind schedule on majority of the project being undertaken by DDA and in fact it was the Delhi Government which had given a major impetus to the construction of infrastructure projects keeping in mind the expanding needs of the Capital.

At the same time, Ms. Dikshit said flyovers were not the ultimate answer to the traffic congestion problem and the need was to switch over to new modes of transport which were environment friendly and saved fuel costs.

Apart from the Metro Rail project, emphasis would be on introducing High Capacity Bus system and also Electric Trolley Buses for which funds were being earmarked by her Government.

The idea is provide a comprehensive and expanded choice of public transport and not to rely on a single system to take the burden, she added.

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Sheila rules out division of Delhi for Statehood