Headlines
No mention of statehood, BJP promises world-class Delhi
New Delhi, Feb 3
The BJP Tuesday kept mum on
the issue of providing full statehood to Delhi, but promised to make the
capital a "world class" city with "utmost transparency" and a
leadership of "unimpeachable integrity" if it was voted to power.
Releasing
a vision document ahead of the Feb 7 assembly polls, the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) also pledged zero tolerance vis-a-vis corruption,
fiscal prudence, "fullest accountability" and "maximum measurability".
The
document, which takes the place of an election manifesto, was framed by
a team led by party leader and union minister Harsh Vardhan, who was
the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in the December 2013 election.
The BJP also vowed to address fundamental issues like power, water, healthcare and the transport system in the capital.
"If
we want to make Delhi a smart and a world class city, we have to
address the basic issues like electricity, water and transport," BJP's
Delhi unit chief Satish Upadhyay told the media here.
"We have
promised one lakh houses for the middle class," he said. "This election
will decide which path the capital will choose."
But unlike in the 2013 manifesto, there was no mention in the document for the long-standing demand for statehood for Delhi.
In
the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections last year, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi too had promised to grant full statehood to Delhi after
coming to power while BJP in-charge of Delhi, Prabhat Jha too had
reiterated the same last month.
Delhi became a state in 1992
under the system of diarchy where the elected government is given wide
powers, except law and order, which remains with the central government.
However,
the vision document instead talks about "completely revamping" the
existing infrastructure in Delhi through various steps like
interconnecting the Delhi Metro, the city bus service, Metro feeder
buses and providing smart cards for all public transport.
Constructing
inter-city and inter-state world-class bus depots and equipping all
public transport with GPS and closed-circuit cameras were also
mentioned.
Stating that each issue in the document was "equally
important", the BJP's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi said it
covered 35 areas as well as over 270 points concerning every resident of
Delhi.
"It covers many areas and includes cleaning the Yamuna
river, housing for the poor, power, development of villages, education,
justice to victims of 1984 riots, protection of northeastern immigrants,
law and order and art and culture," Bedi said.
Jha assured that all promises made in the document would be fulfilled.
The
party said the deliverables would be achieved by "detailed and thorough
analyses of all available resources", "expert advisory councils on
matters of strategic importance", "regular field visits" and "complete
alignment with the government of India", among others.
On the
lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chief minister would give a
monthly radio address -- "Dil ki Baat" -- to apprise people of the
progress of various programmes.