Congress protests water and power shortage in Delhi
New Delhi : The Congress' Delhi unit on Tuesday staged protests in all 70 assembly constituencies of the national capital over alleged water and power scarcity in the city, with its president Sheila Dikshit terming it as "a matter of life and death".
The former Delhi chief minister also accused the AAP government of not being able to come up with a contingency plan. In Sangam Vihar, one of the protest venues, Dikshit claimed city residents had been reeling under "frequent power cuts and water shortage during peak summers but the government is in a deep slumber". "It's a matter of life and death.
The water and power shortage has affected the women, the elderly and the poor the most," she said. A Congress delegation led by Dikshit had recently met Chief Minister Kejriwal at his Flagstaff Road residence where they discussed issues related to water and power supply, and demanded withdrawal of fixed charge hike in electricity bills.
The party's Delhi unit working president Haroon Yusuf, who staged a protest in the Ballimaran Assembly constituency, claimed that drinking water being supplied in many areas was unfit for consumption. Reacting to the protests, AAP leader Gopal Rai said, "I would like Sheila ji to compare what she did to deal with the water crisis in her 15-year-rule with what the AAP has done in just four and a half years."
"The AAP government did in 4.5 years what she couldn't in 15 years. In fact, the high power tariff during her tenure led to the fall of her government," he claimed. Eyeing the assembly elections due early next year, the Delhi units of the Congress and the BJP have been trying to corner the AAP over water and power supply.
Cheap electricity and free drinking water has been an important poll plank of the AAP ever since it won the 2013 Assembly elections. The AAP government claims that it made sure city residents receive uninterrupted power supply at the cheapest rates and increased water supply from 835 million gallons per day to 935 MGD.