The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday brought out its “charge sheet” against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and her Cabinet colleagues while making several allegations of lack of accountability and alleging that the Delhi Government was a failure on all fronts. The BJP also demanded the sacking of the Government.
In its “charge sheet”, the BJP quoted National Crime Records Bureau statistics to allege that Delhi topped the crime charts among cities with population of over one million.
“According to the latest data of NCRB, out of 53 cities of the country having a population of more than 10 lakh, Delhi has accounted for 17.6 per cent of rape cases, 31.8 per cent of kidnapping and abduction cases, 14 per cent of dowry deaths and 10.1 per cent of molestation cases. Among these 53 cities, Delhi (4,489 cases) has accounted for 13.3 per cent of crimes against women.”
The BJP alleged that women-centric policing in the city was almost absent as the number of women in Delhi Police was “woefully low”--at just seven per cent of the total police strength. “What's worse is that they are usually given routine and inconsequential posts and are rarely seen patrolling the city streets. Shockingly, of the 161 district police stations in Delhi, only one (Maurice Nagar) has a woman Station House Officer (SHO), as per available information in December 2012.”
The opposition party also made a mention of how a large number of children go missing in the Capital each year. “In the last two years, around 7,200 cases of children being kidnapped were reported. This is another clear evidence of the unsafe environment in the city,” the BJP said.
The BJP also cited the CAG report on the Delhi Police to allege that funds earmarked for modernisation of the communication branch of the Delhi Police were not utilised.
Regarding the Ladli scheme for girls, the party cited the CAG audit which purportedly observed that many of the beneficiaries were automatically dropped from the scheme after their policies were not renewed.
On the power sector, the BJP cited a Lokayukta notice to the Delhi Government for allegedly providing undue advantage to a discom to the tune of Rs.129 crore. “The CAG has also indicted the Delhi Government for rampant corruption in the power sector. The CAG report rapped Delhi Transco Limited (DTL), a Delhi Government company in-charge of power, for achieving mere 32.08 per cent target in augmentation of transmission capacity from 2007-08 to 2011-12 and for not being able to recover an amount of Rs.754.83 crore as transmission charge from BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd,” the BJP alleged.
The party said the Transport Department has also become a den of corruption. “In one of the recent scams involving a sum of no less than Rs.200 to Rs.300 crore, while the contractors who were given contract for clearing fitness of the commercial vehicles have been put in jail, no action has been taken against the political masters. Interestingly, this whole proposal was cleared by the Delhi Cabinet.”
It said the public transport services continue to be in shambles especially in remote areas of Outer Delhi and in several unauthorised and resettlement colonies.
The BJP also alleged a nexus between the tanker mafia and a section of the government. “The water tariffs have been hiked substantially in the recent times resulting in harrowing time for the common people…24.8 per cent of the households in Delhi were being supplied water through tankers in the absence of pipelines. Per capita supply to this population was only 3.82 litres per day against a prescribed norm of 172 litres.”
Regarding the health sector, the BJP again quoted a CAG report purportedly stating that government hospitals were lacking in facility for purified and clean drinking water.“Underlining issues at the Directorate of Health Services, the CAG reported that no construction work has started at the land sites for 10 hospitals, ranging in capacity between 60-700 that were allocated between 1997 and 2008,” the BJP said.
Again citing a CAG report, the BJP said that while tax revenues increased by 21 per cent to Rs.3,494 crore, the report pointed out short payment of Value Added Tax amounting to over Rs.2,321 crore.
