Under attack following the CAG indictment for her role in alleged irregularities in certain CWG projects, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today sought to highlight the “successful” holding of the Games and trained her guns at the detractors for targetting her.
“The biggest success of last year was successful conduct of CWG. There were questions whether we can organise the Games. Rains just before the event also marred our preparations. But the way we organised the Commonwealth Games was brilliant,” she said in her Independence Day speech after unfurling the tricolour at Chhattrasal Stadium here.
“The Games also brought a lot of development in Delhi. Now I can say after the conduct of the CWG, Delhi is a city with all international facilities,” she said.
The CAG report, tabled in the Parliament earlier this month, indicted Dikshit for her “active involvement” in the grant of a work incurring a loss of Rs 30 crore while slamming her government on some projects that led to a loss and escalation of costs of nearly Rs 500 crore.
“The government is committed to infrastructure development. Whosoever criticise us, let them say... We are not concerned about them. We will continue with this accelerated development,” Ms. Dikshit said in a veiled criticism of her detractors
The BJP has been holding rallies and demonstrations across the city demanding her resignation as well as a thorough probe into the allegations against her and the Delhi government.
The Chief Minister said in the past few years there was acceleration in infrastructural development of the city, such as construction of several flyovers, stadiums and metro rails connecting different parts of Delhi as well as satellite cities.
The Chief Minister also turned spotlight on development in education and health sector, saying “Delhi is one of the metropolises where there is adequate number of schools and hospitals. We are also bringing skill development programmes to provide better job opportunities to youth.”
Ms. Dikhit also highlighted her government’s achievement in controlling pollution and turning Delhi into a green city. .
“Recently, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel came to Delhi, she told me ‘from sky Delhi looks like a green cover, not a city where more than one crore people live”.
“Earlier, pollution was a major problem in Delhi, but use of CNG and advent of metro have eased it. We have planned 42 forest areas in the territory, out of which 22 are ready.
Our target is to plant 10 lakh trees in the city and we have already planted 7 lakh saplings,” she said.
Ms. Dikshit said the government has also given Rs 4 crore to MLAs for local area development and taking measures for speedy official works via information technology.
Later, talking to reporters on Anna Hazare’s indefinite fast from tomorrow against the Centre’s Lokpal bill, she said “The Central government and Delhi Police are handling the matter. I hope they will handle it peacefully.”
During the function, five youth - Kartik Bhandari, Jaideep Goswami, Maulik Gilani, Mannan Soni and Himanshu Soni - were awarded Rs 50,000 and a certificate each for saving the lives of passengers of an Air India flight.
