While Delhi was busy celebrating Diwali, the residents of Kirari Assembly constituency — one the Capital’s most underprivileged areas — spent last four days taking out processions all across the constituency demanding the “right to live with dignity”.
More than 2,000 people took out processions demanding setting up of a local hospital, a local police station, Gvernment schools, community centres, better street lights, public toilets, effective sewage system, quality roads, CCTV cameras and clean drinking water in Kirari.
The processions were led by local Congress leader Pratyush Kanth, who said, “The Arvind Kejriwal Government is behaving as if humans don’t live in Kirari. A large number of women in Kirari still do not have access to toilets. lack of clean drinking water is the primary reason why people, especially children, are sick here all the time. Stagnant water, filth and no sewage system tells a very sad story in Kirari.”
Kanth said, “The Aman Vihar police station is several kilometers away from Kirari, we just have one police Chowki for 8 lakh people! When you walk on the roads of Kirari you get a feeling you are in a war zone. It seems that for the Delhi Government Kirari is not a part of Delhi. We also have a “right to live with dignity.”
More than 95 per cent people living in Kirari are migrants and most of these are employed as daily wagers. Kirari residents were severely affected by dengue this year. More than 1,000 people were hit by dengue. Of these, more than 50 people reportedly lost their lives to the disease.
Kanth said, “The crumbling public health system in Outer Delhi has been notoriously weak for a long time now. There is a total lack of facilities, equipment and medical staff in the nearby hospitals making the situation worse for the people of Kirari. The Government hospitals in the nearby areas are not able to take in the large number of patients coming for treatment everyday.”
Poor people have to walk several kilometers to meet the local SHO in Aman Vihar police station. “It is unimaginable that the police station for lakhs of people of Kirari is in Bawana Assembly constituency. Could you ever imagine the elites of Greater Kailash going to the Vasant Vihar police station to get their cases registeredIJ Just that we the people of Kirari are an underprivileged lot hence we are treated like second grade citizens in our own country by our Government,” Kanth said. People raised slogans against the Arvind Kejriwal Government for not fulfilling their electoral promises of getting hundreds of security cameras installed all over the constituency.