Positioning itself to win the municipal polls for the third term in a row, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday released its ‘Sankalp Patra’ (manifesto), promising not to levy any new municipal tax and work for a Delhi “as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari, who released the manifesto along with senior party leaders, including Union Ministers Harsh Vardhan and Vijay Goel, termed the party manifesto as the “charter of commitment”.
Tiwari sought to take cue from the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath who had promised to fulfil every promise made in the Sankalp Patra.
In its manifesto, the party promised to provide meals at Rs10 under “Deen Dayal Antyodaya Rasoi Yojna” and work in the direction of providing solutions to problems like waterlogging, drainage and sanitation.
The party also promises night-cleaning of all the markets, construction of more public toilets The manifesto also contains provision of cow shelters and provision of food for cows.
By promising not to levy any new municipal tax and work for a Delhi as dreamt by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tiwari said that the party has promised not to levy no new taxes if BJP wins the municipal polls. “Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is trying to scare the people. We will neither levy any new tax nor hike rates, nor allow anyone else to do it. We will strongly resist any such move,” he said further.
In its Sankalap Patra, BJP also mentioned that the exemption from getting building plans approved for plots measuring up to 105 square metres will now be extended to plots measuring up to 500 square metres.
Promising to Delhi people, Tiwari said that the BJP will work for direct transfer of funds from the Centre to the municipal corporations. “The Delhi Government has an annual Budget of Rs48,000 crore in which, the civic bodies have a share of Rs9,000 crore. However they received only Rs2,800 crore. We will force the Government to release the dues,” said the Delhi BJP president.
While taking a dig at Kejriwal for his allegations of corruption and non-performance, Tiwari said that he should sit in the parks of MCD to cure his cough, for which he goes to Bengaluru.
The manifesto promised a transparent and corruption-free rule. It also promised to regularise the temporary sanitation workers, digitalisation of citizen services, putting pressure on the Delhi Government for regularisation of unauthorised colonies.
It also promised a Rs-10 lakh insurance cover for the students in the MCD schools, health cards for citizens, open gymnasiums, scrapping factory licences, promoting enterprises run by women under the Centre’s Startup India scheme, special arrangements to address the problems faced by the people of north-east in the city.
Focusing on the autorickshaw-drivers of Delhi, the manifesto promised to devise a scheme to get ownership rights to them. “The autorickshaw and taxi stands with restrooms for drivers and issuance of licences to hawkers and street vendors under the Street Vendors (Protection of livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014,” the BJP Sankalap Patra reads.
It also promised to simplify rules for availing of bank loans and for registration process to make ‘battery-driven’ electric rickshaws more accessible to drivers.
“The party also promised to increase the number of model schools in the city and vowed to bring Government schools up to the level of public and private schools. Every school will have water-purifiers and CCTV cameras,” it said.
On the health front, the party has visualised a permanent health card for inhabitants to avail of medical facilities at the hospitals. “Complete eradication of whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria, and measles from the capital city through vaccination and immunisation programme was also assured to the city,” as mentioned in manifesto.
In the 27-page ‘Sankalp Patra’ the saffron party has devoted two pages to addressing the allegations levelled by the Congress and the AAP.