Take time off trail to hunker down for a feisty debate in Greater Kailash constituency
For the first time ever, the national Capital witnessed a face-off between candidates from a constituency, where important issues were raised, policies were projected and a constitutional debate was conducted.
The three main candidates from Congress, AAP and BJP in Greater Kailash constituency — Sharmistha Mukherjee, Saurabh Bhardwaj and Rakesh Guliya — on Saturday publicly debated on important questions pertaining to policy, infrastructure and ethics in an event organised by the resident welfare associations (RWAs) of GK I and II along with an NGO called Citizens Alliance. The debate went on for an hour where discussions on the legalisation of RWAs, power subsidy, traffic mess due to unplanned BRT corridor and land utilisation took centrestage.
While putting forward his views on power subsidy, AAP’s Saurabh Bhardwaj said that he and his party are not in favour of subsidies and the only reason the party gave subsidy last time was because of media pressure. “We wanted to follow a system and then properly implement lower electricity rates but the pressure was too much. Thus, we put subsidy within 48 hours. We want rates to come down, not just wash our hands off with subsidy. Even now we will put subsidy, but as a temporary option, and carry out an audit of power discoms to settle reasonably,” he said.
On the BRT corridor, they stressed that public interest is the prerogative. They also admitted that poor planning on the part of the Government has been the reason for poor results.
All candidates appear at par in GK this time. While Bhardwaj has a stronghold in the constituency, Guliya is a local while Mukherjee’s personality and political background has pulled many voters. Even during the debate, no candidate came out individually stronger than the other.
On the issue of land utilisation and traffic problems, while Mukherjee focused on creating a constituency website for people’s awareness, Bhardwaj and Guliya said that they would give way to self-governance and swaraj where the budget for anything wouldn’t pass without the consent of the RWAs.
Addressing a modest gathering of around 300 people, the candidates also took up the issue of utilising the MlA fund of Rs4 crore affectively. Earlier MlAs have complained that the money is not enough to bring about a change in the constituency. However, all the candidates reverberated that while the money cannot be used to implement big changes it can be used to fix the basic issues of the constituency.
The candidates were given three minutes each to put forward their views on the different issues. However, the debate involved no sort of campaigning, sloganeering or talks about the work each of the parties have done.