Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who had once promised the voters of Delhi to transform Delhi into London is now all set to build infrastructure equivalent to “10 Singapore” in Delhi only if full statehood is granted and Centre spends some money on Delhi.
According to reports, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal while addressing a public rally at Patparganj in East Delhi said that he is ready to build infrastructure in Delhi equivalent to 10 Singapore put together in Delhi only if the Central government spend around Rs 40-50 crore on Delhi from the tax it collects from the Delhi residents.
“You take away Rs.1,50,000 crore from Delhi residents. Let’s consider that the rest of the country is poor too and money should be spent on other states as well. But at least spend Rs 40 crore to Rs 50 crore on Delhi. So many universities can be built, so many colleges can be built (with the money). We (AAP) will make 10 Singapore in Delhi,” said Kejriwal.
Arvind Kejriwal in the run-up to municipal polls in Delhi last year had promised to give the city’s civic management a makeover and make it London within just one year. However, Delhi under the rule of Kejriwal has deteriorated much as the AAP government has even failed to tackle the pollution crisis in the state.
Arvind Kejriwal has even failed to deliver promises that he had assured before coming to power in Delhi. He had made a variety of promises like bringing in a Jan Lokpal, providing free WIFI, installing 15 lakh CCTV cameras, taking action against Sheila Dikshit among others, but none of the above has been achieved by the Delhi CM Kejriwal.
It is also interesting that Arvind Kejriwal often claims that the union government has deliberately not provided any funds to Delhi while accusing the centre of interference in the affairs of the Delhi, it must be noted that the Delhi government has not even used the funds which has been allocated by its own budget.
Recently, Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta had revealed that there was a “vast difference” between the government’s claims and proposals and its performance on the ground. Gupta accused the AAP government of failing to spend the allocated amount of Rs 22,000 crore. He further added that the Kejriwal government had spent only Rs.8,410 crore, which is a little over 38% of the total allocation. If the allegations of Gupta are found to be true, Kejriwal will be caught with wrongly accusing the centre of not providing sufficient funds, as his government has not even spent the funds which have been allocated in the state budget.
Similarly, An RTI query had revealed how Arvind Kejriwal led Delhi government was sitting on the Rs. 787 crore collected as environment cess and used only Rs. 93 lakh, or 0.13% of the amount collected for the intended purposes. The cess which was collected by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation was remitted to the transport department to be used for environment preservation and strengthening public transport. However, Kejriwal government has not used this amount to fund any developmental works in the state.
