States Watch

Delhi

Good Governance to be Poll Plank
-DPCC Chief

Bihar Many Leaders Join Congress PATNA : The Bihar Congress grew stronger on 29 June with many leaders from Samata Party, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) joining it. Those who joined the Congress included former Bihar Law Minister and Samata Party national committee member Deonath Prasad, Yuva Samata State vice-president Arun Kumar Yadav, LJP’s student wing president Pankaj Kumar and NCP’s national council member Ashok Kumar Thakur. State Congress president, Shri Ram Jatan Sinha welcomed all at a function at the party’s headquarters here. Shri Sinha said that many more leaders have showed their interest to join the Congress in the near future. CHHATTISGARH Rs. 2,335 Crores Outlay for Chhattisgarh NEW DELHI : The 2003-04 Annual Plan outlay for Chhattisgarh was fixed at Rs. 2,335 crores at a meeting between the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Shri KC Pant, and the State Chief Minister, Shri Ajit Jogi, here on 27 June. This includes Rs. 18.87 crores for priority schemes of the State.

NEW DELHI : The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, Chaudhary Prem Singh, said here on June 20 that his party would seek the mandate of the people in the forthcoming Delhi Assembly elections later this year on the basis of good governance and the development work carried out by the Sheila Dikshit Government over the past four and a half years.

"I am sure the Congress would return to power with a thumping majority," he asserted. Addressing his maiden press conference after taking over from Shri Subhash Chopra earlier this week, Shri Singh urged the party workers to highlight the achievements of the Sheila Government and at the same time expose "the corruption-ridden rule and anti-people policies of the BJP-led Government at the Centre".

Shri Singh was flanked by two senior party leaders in Delhi, Shri Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler. The Leader of the House in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Shri Ram Babu Sharma, the Delhi Mayor, Shri Ashok K. Jain, the Deputy Speaker of the Delhi Assembly, Smt. Kiran Choudhary, the Delhi Industry Minister, Shri Deep Chand Bandhu, and the DPCC spokesman, Shri Mukesh Sharma, were also present.

Showering praise on the Delhi Government Shri Singh claimed that despite enjoying limited powers, the overall development and growth of the Capital had been extraordinary during the regime of Smt. Dikshit. "Delhi, which was once considered one of the most polluted cities of the world, has been declared a clean city in just four years. This could not have happened except for effective monitoring and anti-pollution measures taken by the Sheila Dikshit Government," he argued.

The same was the case with the ambitious Metro Rail project which was a dream of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, "but this BJP Government has tried to spike this ambitious project by appointing Madan Lal Khurana, Delhi unit BJP president, as Chairman of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation," he alleged.

Accusing the BJP of not only misleading the people but also making false promises to Delhiites, Shri Singh alleged that it had backtracked on the issue of full statehood to Delhi. "Similarly on the issue of regularization of more than 1,000 unauthorized colonies in the Capital, no progress has been made due to the Union Government’s policies."

Similarly, he said, a massive drive for demolition of slum clusters has been planned by the BJP to uproot the poor and deny them their right to vote in the forthcoming Assembly elections. Referring to the recent demolition of 4,500 jhuggies in the Kirti Nagar area, he warned: "We will come out on the streets if there is any attempt to remove slum dwellers without providing them any alternate accommodation."

Shri Singh threatened to launch a mass movement if the Centre tried to implement the Conditional Access System (CAS) for cable TV in Delhi. "It has failed on all fronts," he said. Asking the Congress workers to be prepared for the challenges ahead, Shri Singh said he would start attending block Congress conventions from June 21. He promised to revive the various cells of the DPCC.

Reiterating that indiscipline would not be tolerated in the Congress, Shri Singh urged the party leaders, particularly the municipal Councillors and MLA, to bury their personal differences and align with the block presidents and office-bearers.