The first month of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government in Delhi has largely failed to inspire confidence in public as it remained surrounded by controversies more than it could perform to benefit the public. While the Government claimed to have offered significant relief by announcing subsidy on power and water, the controversies surrounding Somnath Bharti, Rakhi Birla and Kejriwal’s dharna rendered a blow to the Government’s image. Its steps taken to make permanent the contractual employees also came as eyewash with no immediate relief as announced earlier.
However, defending his Government, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that no other party had performed as much as the AAP Government in the past one month. “We are here to work for the people and not to ensure that we are in power,” he said. Kejriwal will complete one month in office on Tuesday. He had taken oath as Chief Minister of Delhi on December 28. The slew of populist decisions announced by him so far is not going to benefit a large chunk of people in the national Capital.
In addition to this, Somnath Bharti was widely criticised for a controversial raid targeting African nationals in his constituency and calling a meeting with judges at his office. He also responded to President Pranab Mukherjee’s comments against ‘populist anarchy’ with a sharp retort on Monday invoking the riots of 1984 and 2002. Kejriwal’s dharna at Rail Bhavan also drew flak from all quarters and he was forced to withdraw within 36 hours.
After taking oath on December 28 last year, Kejriwal’s first executive order was that none of his Cabinet colleagues, legislators or officers would use red beacons, on their official cars. But as a matter of fact, the Supreme Court had already put a ban on using red beacons on the official cars of MlAs and MPs. The AAP founder’s first major decision was to provide free drinking water to those households, who would be consuming up to 667 litres a day. The AAP manifesto had promised that all households in Delhi would be provided 700 litres of drinking water free of cost every day. The Government’s new scheme was not applicable for those who do not have functional water meters. Just 1.7 million of the roughly 2.5 million households have water connections, the rest are not going to benefit from the scheme. More than 35 per cent connections in Delhi don’t have a functional meter and less than 40 per cent of water piped to households was billed during the last three years.
Kejriwal’s second major decision was to provide 50 per cent subsidy for the consumers consuming up to 400 units of electricity. The new scheme, which would translate into Rs 200 crore burden for the Government each quarter, is not going to benefit a large number of Delhiites. The AAP Government thinks that 50 per cent slash in the power bills will not put any burden on the Government exchequer. The Chief Minister has claimed that Rs 61 crore would be drawn from the Government coffers and the rest would be paid for by what the AAP calls unfair profits of the power distribution companies. The Government has ordered CAG audit of three discoms. The Government had also promised to get the power meters checked by an independent agency. He has asked people to write directly to the deputy commissioners about fast meters. He said the Government would randomly check 10,000 meters but power experts have already suggested that this exercise won’t be able to identify fast running meters.
The CM also announced that his Government would set up porta cabins for the homeless but only a few could be set up till date even as scores of people have died due to cold. To regularise contractual employees of Delhi Government, it has set up a high-level committee to formulate a policy. There are 2.5 lakh contractual employees in Delhi Government while the Government has only 36,000 vacant posts. While the Jan lokpal Bill, Swaraj Bill, Statehood to Delhi Bill, proposal to set up a special commando force is still on papers.