49 days of AAP Governance - Must Read
In the 49 days they ruled in 2013-14, they were walking a tightrope, and walking it fast. The AAP government was in a minority, existing because of the tenuous support of a unwilling partner.
There was this constant sense that Arvind Kejriwal and his 28-MLA show was living on borrowed time. So they tried to make the most of it. At a frenetic pace, one decision followed another. Power and water were subsidised, with much controversy surrounding the decisions.
And soon, residents of Delhi were armed with sting operations and an-anti corruption helpline. There were other decisions as well, but with strong disagreements on the Lokpal Bill with the Congress, Kejriwal chose to resign. The end, tumultuous as it was, was only symbolic of the tenure.
A little over a year later, Kejriwal has returned, and with an unprecedented number in the House. The decisions have largely been the same. Cheaper power and water and now the anti-corruption helpline. But the pace, backed by the knowledge that they are here to stay for five years, has been more measured.
Things have been considerably easier in the Delhi Assembly, with an opposition in name only. With the opposition coming from within the party itself, governance has become of utmost importance. The AAP and Kejriwal will be acutely aware that with many questioning the credentials of transparency they once bore, there is no room for error in governance.
Pragya Kaushika and Mayura Janwalkar put together 49 things that the second AAP government has done or is trying to do:
1. Electricity: Within two weeks of starting its second innings in Delhi on February 14, the AAP government fulfilled one of its top poll promises by cutting electricity tariff by half. But the largesse came with a rider — the cut was only for households consuming less than 400 units a month. Any units above this threshold would attract charges for the entire number of units consumed. The government believes that 36.06 lakh families or 90 per cent of domestic consumers in Delhi will benefit. An estimated amount of Rs 1,427 crore has been set aside for this financial to pay for the subsidy.
2. Water: When the AAP was in power for 49 days last time, it gave free 20,000 litres of water to every household per month. This time too, the same has been implemented. And there is an extra benefit too. Sewerage charges too have been waived off for the families availing the subsidy. This would cost the state exchequer Rs 250 crore per annum. Around 18 lakh families would benefit from the free water allowance.
3. Unauthorised colonies: AAP has promised to give property rights and civic amenities to those living in unauthorised colonies. Boundaries of such colonies will be finalised and sent to the corporations for a layout plan. This, however, is a task with a history of legal and administrative complications. Attempts in the past by BJP and Congress have failed.
4. Resettlement colonies: It was high on the agenda during the campaign. The government has announced opening of freehold for the city’s 45 resettlement colonies. Original allottees will receive ownership of their plots for just Rs 10,000. Those who bought later will get ownership rights for Rs 50,000. The move has impacted owners of 25 to 80 sq yard plots. These owners were either allotted on lease or evicted following the 1975 Emergency and 1984 Sikh riots.
5. Controlling price rise: The government has sought help of NAFED to secure 10,000 metric tonnes of potatoes and onions from other states and store it in those states. The manifesto, however, promised a reduced rate of all vegetables. The government has so far been a failure on that front.
6. Anti-corruption helpline: Like last time, a topper on AAP’s to-do list. The government has taken its time to start the helpline no. 1031. “It needed some tweaking,” said a senior official. The helpline was finally launched on Sunday. Apart from this, the government has planned a mobile application to do stings on corrupt officials.
7. Free WiFi: This was a loud promise but it was always going to take time and come with riders. With Adarsh Shastri in charge, discussions have started on how to make city-wide WiFi possible and how much of it can actually be free. Shastri has set February 2016 as a possible start date.
8. Parliamentary secretaries: Arvind Kejriwal has appointed 21 Assembly members as parliamentary secretaries to his six ministers. These secretaries will not be eligible for any remuneration or perks from the government, meaning no burden on the exchequer.
9. Women’s safety: The government has asked the Delhi Police for a list of dark spots across the capital. With few marshals in the city, the government may need to recruit more and double the capacity of home guards if they were to be deputed as marshals. The government is also planning to recruit people in civil defence and post them as marshals.
10. Education: The education department issued notices to 200 private schools for charging “exorbitant” fees. For safety, the government claims to have started installing CCTVs in schools.
11. Sewage: Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia claims all PWD roads measuring 1,200 km will be inspected and mapped for sewage. The department has demanded Rs 60 crore for the project.
12. Old-age pension: The government claims to have done verification of more than 50,000 old-age pensioners. Out of these, 30,000 would get the pension soon, Sisodia said.
13. Aanganwadi: The government maintains that Aanganwadi centres are not being run professionally. It has decided to pick up food grain from FCI and not from open market to save money and give students fruit for mid-day meal.
14. Forensic lab and a prison: A forensic lab will be set up in Rohini. Mandoli prison will be handed over to the government in October.
15. E-ration card: A first in the country, the government has put ration cards online. Intended beneficiaries will now be able to either print it or get someone to take a print-out for them, cutting red tape.
16. E-rickshaws: About 19,000 learner’s licences were issued to e-rickshaw drivers in special camps held by the Delhi government at 13 motor licensing offices across Delhi. The main thrust of these camps was to facilitate the issuance of e-rickshaw learning licenses along with receiving of applications for issuance of PSV badges.
17. Health facilities for the poor: All private hospitals will have to ensure that beds are available for the poor. For this, the government has planned to deploy its own officials in private hospitals to ensure that EWS patients routed through government hospitals would get beds and facilities there.
18. Traders: The Delhi government has decided to allow “carry forward” of refund (input tax credit) of VAT and extend the date of filing R9 Form. Stamp vendor licence will now be online.
19. Environment: Little progress on this critical issue. In name of checking air pollution, all it has dome is conduct 66 surprise checks at pollution control centres, in which 18 were found to be not working properly. Despite regular meetings and directions from the NGT, the department has only deflected blame and called for meetings with NCR states.
20. Compensation: Rs 1 crore in compensation will be given to uniformed services personnel who lose life in the line of duty. The payout will also cover the families of uniformed personnel killed on duty outside Delhi, but whose families reside in the capital.
21. Higher minimum wage: Labour Minister Gopal Rai raised the minimum wage for workers in the unorganised sector by about 5 per cent. Dilli Swavlamban Yojana has been revived with the aid of central government to register construction workers in Delhi.
22. Wakf board: The Delhi government has sought a report on the functioning of the Wakf board. Several complaints had been received alleging that representatives appointed to the Wakf Board have committed violations of rules.
23. BRT corridor: The government is examining the feasibility of the BRT corridor in South Delhi. Five MLAs including former transport minister Saurabh Bhardwaj have written to the chief minister to scrap the corridor that has caused major inconvenience to residents of the area and has also seen a number of accidents. Although the government is not opposed to the idea of a BRT corridor, it is reviewing the implementation of the project.
24. Hawkers or vendors: The Urban development department ordered civic bodies and the police not to oust any hawkers or vendors from places that they have been carrying out their business in for several years. The government, however, said the authorities concerned must make sure that no new hawkers enter no-hawking zones in Delhi.
25. Budget by people: Kejirwal announced his government’s plan to start a pilot project in five or 10 Assembly constituencies involving the people there in making the government’s budget this year. Kejriwal said that the government will seek direction from the people about where the government must channel its funds. The constituencies are in the process of being identified.
26. Meritocracy: Postings of bureaucrats in various departments will be driven by “honesty and efficiency” and no recommendations or lobbying will fetch an officer a plum posting anymore, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. Bureaucrats will now have to compete to get a department of their choice. He said that his government will undertake an experiment with transfers and postings of heads of various departments.
27. Hospital land: Health Minister Satyendra Jain has written to the Union Ministry of Urban Development seeking the cancellation of the land allotments made to private companies for construction of hospitals at 18 sites in the capital. The plots of land stretching over approximately 50 acres in different parts of the city, had been allotted to the private players 15 to 44 years back but no construction was undertaken.
28. West Delhi connectivity: After surveying three under-construction projects in the city, the Delhi government has directed that the work of constructing a 12 km road between Wazirabad and Swarup Nagar and another between Wazirabad and Vikaspuri will be completed by December 31, 2015. The PWD is also planning to construct a skywalk for the last mile connectivity between Mukandpur Metro station and the Mukandpur colony.
29. No demolition: Sisodia met Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu following which the two agreed that the demolition drive being carried out along railway tracks in Delhi “would be put on hold for the time being”. The state government will work with the railways to chalk out a plan to resettle the residents of these slums. Officials of the Delhi government have been asked to work with their counterparts in the Railways to identify the necessary measures that need to be taken.
30. Bawana power plant: Power minister Satyendra Jain inspected the Bawana gas-based power plant a day after there was a blast at the plant on March 24. After inspecting the power plant, the minister directed the department of power to conduct an inquiry to ascertain the reasons behind the blast.
31. Hospital checks: The government in March directed the medical superintendents of Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital Rohini and Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital Jahangir Puri to explain the reasons for “pathetic state of affairs in their respective hospitals”.
32. District committees: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has appointed 11 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs as district committee chairpersons in 11 districts. The chief minister has also asked his MLAs to hold weekly public meetings in their Assembly constituencies to hear people’s grievances. The government is trying to streamline the process of grievance redressal. MLAs will hold public meetings in their constituencies and try to resolve them at their level. The complaints that need the government’s attention will be brought the chief minister’s office.
33. Ambedkar Nagar Hospital: The Delhi government announced the government’s decision to expand the Ambedkar Nagar Hospital, that is currently under construction, from a 262 bed hospital to a 600-bed hospital. The government will incur an additional cost of Rs 45 crore to increase the hospital’s capacity by 338 beds. The 262-bed hospital was commissioned in 2010 and is being constructed on a 2.47 acre plot at a cost of Rs 117 crore.
34. White paper: The Delhi government appointed former chairman, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC), Bijendra Singh as the one-man committee to bring out a white paper on the power sector. The white paper, that will be a study of the various aspects in the power sector in Delhi since 2002, will be brought out in three months and will be made public. The white paper the Delhi government will bring out and the discom audits undertaken by the CAG are two separate things.
35. Delhi Dialogue Commission: The Delhi Dialogue Commission announced the appointment of 21 task forces to work on various subjects of governance including women’s security, electricity, clean water, clean Yamuna, neat and clean Delhi, education, health, Delhi rural, trade, jobs and job-security, pollution, transport, unauthorised colonies, Jhuggi Jhopadi clusters, price-rise, traffic, speedy justice, mobile par sarkar (government on mobile), wi-fi and CCTV and tax reforms.
36. Swine flu labs: In February, while there was a spurt in the number of swine flu cases across the country, the government said it would set up two more labs for swine flu testing in addition to the three government labs already conducting tests. Health minister Satyendra Jain also said that the government had granted licence to 40 more drug stores to sell Tamiflu tablets for treatment of swine flu.
37. Coal blocks: The Delhi government made a formal request to the Centre seeking allocation of a coal block to enable a private player to set up a plant to supply electricity to Delhi. The allocation is expected to be made by June.
38. Job security: The government directed that the services of no government employee on contract will be terminated until the government completes a review of the existing policy on the status of contractual employees engaged in various government departments and organisations.
39. Ban on demolitions: The government issued directions to various government agencies not to carry out any demolitions of residential premises and slums.
40. Power to the slums: The power minister told discoms that there should be no load-shedding this summer. However, should Delhi face load-shedding, it should not be limited to slums and all areas must take turns to face the interruption in power supply that should not exceed one hour at a time.
41. Salary for cleaning staff: Days after the city’s streets were lined with garbage piles after safai karmcharis from the East Delhi Municipal Corporation called a strike, the Delhi government decided to release funds to the cash-strapped civic bodies to enable them to pay the salaries of the sanitation workers.
42. Graft-free schools: The government’s Anti Corruption Branch arrested the principal of a government school on alleged charges of financial embezzlement of funds running into over Rs 27 lakh in Nithari area of north-west Delhi. The accused Ashok Kumar Singh was the principal of Government Senior Secondary School Nithari near Sultanpuri.
43. More pay: The labour department increased the minimum wage of Rs 8,632 to Rs 9,048 in the unorganised sector. Similarly wages of semi-skilled, skilled and graduate workers were increased from Rs 9,542, Rs 10,478 and Rs 11,414 to Rs 10,010, Rs 10,998 and Rs 11,986 respectively.
44. Waste mamangement: Following a day-long conference on Solid Waste Management (SWM) organised by the Delhi Dialogue Commission, the commission sought proposals from C Srinivasan, project director at the Indian Green Service, who spoke about the “Vellore model” of waste disposal adopted by many states in India and Dr S R Maley, a Mumbai-based scientist who has worked extensively in the fields of agronomy, biotechnology and environment with a special focus on solid waste management.
45. Health camps: The government’s labour department organised health camps for industrial workers on Tuesday in at GT Karnal Road Industrial Area and Udyog Nagar Industrial Area, Peera Garhi and a camp at Okhla Industrial Area, Naraina Industrial Area and Mayapuri Industrial Area.
46. RTI reports: The administrative reforms department held a workshop for all government officials asking them to file Right to Information (RTI) quarterly reports.
47. Freedom fighters: In a spot decision taken on March 23, the government announced that all its 70 MLAs will make contributions from their salaries towards erecting busts of freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev on the Assembly premises.
48. NCR pollution meet: Environment minister Asim Ahmed Khan has written to the Ministry of Environment to call for a meeting of all NCR states to jointly take measures to control the alarming pollution levels in Delhi. Improvement of air quality in Delhi, Khan said, will require “comprehensive, coordinated and integrated efforts”, while accounting the emissions from the neighbouring states and from Delhi to understand the causal relationship between emissions.
49. School fees: The government brought private schools under its scanner as the administration decided to “look into” the fee structure of these schools to ensure that the fees charged are not exorbitant. The government will examine the fees charged by various schools depending on complaints received. more
There was this constant sense that Arvind Kejriwal and his 28-MLA show was living on borrowed time. So they tried to make the most of it. At a frenetic pace, one decision followed another. Power and water were subsidised, with much controversy surrounding the decisions.
And soon, residents of Delhi were armed with sting operations and an-anti corruption helpline. There were other decisions as well, but with strong disagreements on the Lokpal Bill with the Congress, Kejriwal chose to resign. The end, tumultuous as it was, was only symbolic of the tenure.
A little over a year later, Kejriwal has returned, and with an unprecedented number in the House. The decisions have largely been the same. Cheaper power and water and now the anti-corruption helpline. But the pace, backed by the knowledge that they are here to stay for five years, has been more measured.
Things have been considerably easier in the Delhi Assembly, with an opposition in name only. With the opposition coming from within the party itself, governance has become of utmost importance. The AAP and Kejriwal will be acutely aware that with many questioning the credentials of transparency they once bore, there is no room for error in governance.
Pragya Kaushika and Mayura Janwalkar put together 49 things that the second AAP government has done or is trying to do:
1. Electricity: Within two weeks of starting its second innings in Delhi on February 14, the AAP government fulfilled one of its top poll promises by cutting electricity tariff by half. But the largesse came with a rider — the cut was only for households consuming less than 400 units a month. Any units above this threshold would attract charges for the entire number of units consumed. The government believes that 36.06 lakh families or 90 per cent of domestic consumers in Delhi will benefit. An estimated amount of Rs 1,427 crore has been set aside for this financial to pay for the subsidy.
2. Water: When the AAP was in power for 49 days last time, it gave free 20,000 litres of water to every household per month. This time too, the same has been implemented. And there is an extra benefit too. Sewerage charges too have been waived off for the families availing the subsidy. This would cost the state exchequer Rs 250 crore per annum. Around 18 lakh families would benefit from the free water allowance.
3. Unauthorised colonies: AAP has promised to give property rights and civic amenities to those living in unauthorised colonies. Boundaries of such colonies will be finalised and sent to the corporations for a layout plan. This, however, is a task with a history of legal and administrative complications. Attempts in the past by BJP and Congress have failed.
4. Resettlement colonies: It was high on the agenda during the campaign. The government has announced opening of freehold for the city’s 45 resettlement colonies. Original allottees will receive ownership of their plots for just Rs 10,000. Those who bought later will get ownership rights for Rs 50,000. The move has impacted owners of 25 to 80 sq yard plots. These owners were either allotted on lease or evicted following the 1975 Emergency and 1984 Sikh riots.
5. Controlling price rise: The government has sought help of NAFED to secure 10,000 metric tonnes of potatoes and onions from other states and store it in those states. The manifesto, however, promised a reduced rate of all vegetables. The government has so far been a failure on that front.
6. Anti-corruption helpline: Like last time, a topper on AAP’s to-do list. The government has taken its time to start the helpline no. 1031. “It needed some tweaking,” said a senior official. The helpline was finally launched on Sunday. Apart from this, the government has planned a mobile application to do stings on corrupt officials.
7. Free WiFi: This was a loud promise but it was always going to take time and come with riders. With Adarsh Shastri in charge, discussions have started on how to make city-wide WiFi possible and how much of it can actually be free. Shastri has set February 2016 as a possible start date.
8. Parliamentary secretaries: Arvind Kejriwal has appointed 21 Assembly members as parliamentary secretaries to his six ministers. These secretaries will not be eligible for any remuneration or perks from the government, meaning no burden on the exchequer.
9. Women’s safety: The government has asked the Delhi Police for a list of dark spots across the capital. With few marshals in the city, the government may need to recruit more and double the capacity of home guards if they were to be deputed as marshals. The government is also planning to recruit people in civil defence and post them as marshals.
10. Education: The education department issued notices to 200 private schools for charging “exorbitant” fees. For safety, the government claims to have started installing CCTVs in schools.
11. Sewage: Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia claims all PWD roads measuring 1,200 km will be inspected and mapped for sewage. The department has demanded Rs 60 crore for the project.
12. Old-age pension: The government claims to have done verification of more than 50,000 old-age pensioners. Out of these, 30,000 would get the pension soon, Sisodia said.
13. Aanganwadi: The government maintains that Aanganwadi centres are not being run professionally. It has decided to pick up food grain from FCI and not from open market to save money and give students fruit for mid-day meal.
14. Forensic lab and a prison: A forensic lab will be set up in Rohini. Mandoli prison will be handed over to the government in October.
15. E-ration card: A first in the country, the government has put ration cards online. Intended beneficiaries will now be able to either print it or get someone to take a print-out for them, cutting red tape.
16. E-rickshaws: About 19,000 learner’s licences were issued to e-rickshaw drivers in special camps held by the Delhi government at 13 motor licensing offices across Delhi. The main thrust of these camps was to facilitate the issuance of e-rickshaw learning licenses along with receiving of applications for issuance of PSV badges.
17. Health facilities for the poor: All private hospitals will have to ensure that beds are available for the poor. For this, the government has planned to deploy its own officials in private hospitals to ensure that EWS patients routed through government hospitals would get beds and facilities there.
18. Traders: The Delhi government has decided to allow “carry forward” of refund (input tax credit) of VAT and extend the date of filing R9 Form. Stamp vendor licence will now be online.
19. Environment: Little progress on this critical issue. In name of checking air pollution, all it has dome is conduct 66 surprise checks at pollution control centres, in which 18 were found to be not working properly. Despite regular meetings and directions from the NGT, the department has only deflected blame and called for meetings with NCR states.
20. Compensation: Rs 1 crore in compensation will be given to uniformed services personnel who lose life in the line of duty. The payout will also cover the families of uniformed personnel killed on duty outside Delhi, but whose families reside in the capital.
21. Higher minimum wage: Labour Minister Gopal Rai raised the minimum wage for workers in the unorganised sector by about 5 per cent. Dilli Swavlamban Yojana has been revived with the aid of central government to register construction workers in Delhi.
22. Wakf board: The Delhi government has sought a report on the functioning of the Wakf board. Several complaints had been received alleging that representatives appointed to the Wakf Board have committed violations of rules.
23. BRT corridor: The government is examining the feasibility of the BRT corridor in South Delhi. Five MLAs including former transport minister Saurabh Bhardwaj have written to the chief minister to scrap the corridor that has caused major inconvenience to residents of the area and has also seen a number of accidents. Although the government is not opposed to the idea of a BRT corridor, it is reviewing the implementation of the project.
24. Hawkers or vendors: The Urban development department ordered civic bodies and the police not to oust any hawkers or vendors from places that they have been carrying out their business in for several years. The government, however, said the authorities concerned must make sure that no new hawkers enter no-hawking zones in Delhi.
25. Budget by people: Kejirwal announced his government’s plan to start a pilot project in five or 10 Assembly constituencies involving the people there in making the government’s budget this year. Kejriwal said that the government will seek direction from the people about where the government must channel its funds. The constituencies are in the process of being identified.
26. Meritocracy: Postings of bureaucrats in various departments will be driven by “honesty and efficiency” and no recommendations or lobbying will fetch an officer a plum posting anymore, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. Bureaucrats will now have to compete to get a department of their choice. He said that his government will undertake an experiment with transfers and postings of heads of various departments.
27. Hospital land: Health Minister Satyendra Jain has written to the Union Ministry of Urban Development seeking the cancellation of the land allotments made to private companies for construction of hospitals at 18 sites in the capital. The plots of land stretching over approximately 50 acres in different parts of the city, had been allotted to the private players 15 to 44 years back but no construction was undertaken.
28. West Delhi connectivity: After surveying three under-construction projects in the city, the Delhi government has directed that the work of constructing a 12 km road between Wazirabad and Swarup Nagar and another between Wazirabad and Vikaspuri will be completed by December 31, 2015. The PWD is also planning to construct a skywalk for the last mile connectivity between Mukandpur Metro station and the Mukandpur colony.
29. No demolition: Sisodia met Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu following which the two agreed that the demolition drive being carried out along railway tracks in Delhi “would be put on hold for the time being”. The state government will work with the railways to chalk out a plan to resettle the residents of these slums. Officials of the Delhi government have been asked to work with their counterparts in the Railways to identify the necessary measures that need to be taken.
30. Bawana power plant: Power minister Satyendra Jain inspected the Bawana gas-based power plant a day after there was a blast at the plant on March 24. After inspecting the power plant, the minister directed the department of power to conduct an inquiry to ascertain the reasons behind the blast.
31. Hospital checks: The government in March directed the medical superintendents of Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital Rohini and Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital Jahangir Puri to explain the reasons for “pathetic state of affairs in their respective hospitals”.
32. District committees: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has appointed 11 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs as district committee chairpersons in 11 districts. The chief minister has also asked his MLAs to hold weekly public meetings in their Assembly constituencies to hear people’s grievances. The government is trying to streamline the process of grievance redressal. MLAs will hold public meetings in their constituencies and try to resolve them at their level. The complaints that need the government’s attention will be brought the chief minister’s office.
33. Ambedkar Nagar Hospital: The Delhi government announced the government’s decision to expand the Ambedkar Nagar Hospital, that is currently under construction, from a 262 bed hospital to a 600-bed hospital. The government will incur an additional cost of Rs 45 crore to increase the hospital’s capacity by 338 beds. The 262-bed hospital was commissioned in 2010 and is being constructed on a 2.47 acre plot at a cost of Rs 117 crore.
34. White paper: The Delhi government appointed former chairman, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC), Bijendra Singh as the one-man committee to bring out a white paper on the power sector. The white paper, that will be a study of the various aspects in the power sector in Delhi since 2002, will be brought out in three months and will be made public. The white paper the Delhi government will bring out and the discom audits undertaken by the CAG are two separate things.
35. Delhi Dialogue Commission: The Delhi Dialogue Commission announced the appointment of 21 task forces to work on various subjects of governance including women’s security, electricity, clean water, clean Yamuna, neat and clean Delhi, education, health, Delhi rural, trade, jobs and job-security, pollution, transport, unauthorised colonies, Jhuggi Jhopadi clusters, price-rise, traffic, speedy justice, mobile par sarkar (government on mobile), wi-fi and CCTV and tax reforms.
36. Swine flu labs: In February, while there was a spurt in the number of swine flu cases across the country, the government said it would set up two more labs for swine flu testing in addition to the three government labs already conducting tests. Health minister Satyendra Jain also said that the government had granted licence to 40 more drug stores to sell Tamiflu tablets for treatment of swine flu.
37. Coal blocks: The Delhi government made a formal request to the Centre seeking allocation of a coal block to enable a private player to set up a plant to supply electricity to Delhi. The allocation is expected to be made by June.
38. Job security: The government directed that the services of no government employee on contract will be terminated until the government completes a review of the existing policy on the status of contractual employees engaged in various government departments and organisations.
39. Ban on demolitions: The government issued directions to various government agencies not to carry out any demolitions of residential premises and slums.
40. Power to the slums: The power minister told discoms that there should be no load-shedding this summer. However, should Delhi face load-shedding, it should not be limited to slums and all areas must take turns to face the interruption in power supply that should not exceed one hour at a time.
41. Salary for cleaning staff: Days after the city’s streets were lined with garbage piles after safai karmcharis from the East Delhi Municipal Corporation called a strike, the Delhi government decided to release funds to the cash-strapped civic bodies to enable them to pay the salaries of the sanitation workers.
42. Graft-free schools: The government’s Anti Corruption Branch arrested the principal of a government school on alleged charges of financial embezzlement of funds running into over Rs 27 lakh in Nithari area of north-west Delhi. The accused Ashok Kumar Singh was the principal of Government Senior Secondary School Nithari near Sultanpuri.
43. More pay: The labour department increased the minimum wage of Rs 8,632 to Rs 9,048 in the unorganised sector. Similarly wages of semi-skilled, skilled and graduate workers were increased from Rs 9,542, Rs 10,478 and Rs 11,414 to Rs 10,010, Rs 10,998 and Rs 11,986 respectively.
44. Waste mamangement: Following a day-long conference on Solid Waste Management (SWM) organised by the Delhi Dialogue Commission, the commission sought proposals from C Srinivasan, project director at the Indian Green Service, who spoke about the “Vellore model” of waste disposal adopted by many states in India and Dr S R Maley, a Mumbai-based scientist who has worked extensively in the fields of agronomy, biotechnology and environment with a special focus on solid waste management.
45. Health camps: The government’s labour department organised health camps for industrial workers on Tuesday in at GT Karnal Road Industrial Area and Udyog Nagar Industrial Area, Peera Garhi and a camp at Okhla Industrial Area, Naraina Industrial Area and Mayapuri Industrial Area.
46. RTI reports: The administrative reforms department held a workshop for all government officials asking them to file Right to Information (RTI) quarterly reports.
47. Freedom fighters: In a spot decision taken on March 23, the government announced that all its 70 MLAs will make contributions from their salaries towards erecting busts of freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev on the Assembly premises.
48. NCR pollution meet: Environment minister Asim Ahmed Khan has written to the Ministry of Environment to call for a meeting of all NCR states to jointly take measures to control the alarming pollution levels in Delhi. Improvement of air quality in Delhi, Khan said, will require “comprehensive, coordinated and integrated efforts”, while accounting the emissions from the neighbouring states and from Delhi to understand the causal relationship between emissions.
49. School fees: The government brought private schools under its scanner as the administration decided to “look into” the fee structure of these schools to ensure that the fees charged are not exorbitant. The government will examine the fees charged by various schools depending on complaints received. more
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Mr Kejriwal and Mr Sisodia can do lot of photo ops with the press for the masses by starting helpline etc, but the real change will come if they change the systems and get to tally digital and transparent with accountability. In the area e governance either systems are half baked or have point solutions or are not working. At most the places Govt believes in coding or hiring people and coding. For eg if you actually want to take away inspector raj from Vat , he should be using IOT and doing proactive taxation more
Apr 09
Well thoughts steps by government. A few more to cut down on pollution & make Green Delhi as below: 1. No Entry for trucks (bigger than 6 tonnes) since 6 am till 10 pm. 2. No Entry for light weight commercial vehicles (lesser or equals to 6 tonnes) since 4 pm to 10 pm & 6 am to 11 am 3. No SEDAN, SUV & MPV to ply during office hours on road between 8:30 am till 10:30 am & 5 pm till 8 pm. Such cars can only ply in office hours if they are commercial, call center cabs, company cabs ( must display call centre/ office names on front & rear windscreens or personal vehicles with full seating capacity occupied***. *** Must also ban NCR vehicles. 4. Send ultimatum to all car companies to do away with diesel cars in next 2-3 years. 5. All Delhi registered cars - personal or commercial must run on CNG. 6. No radio taxis from NCR with diesel engine should be allowed to ply in Delhi. They have to mandatorily CNG based. 7. Interest rates on vehicles must be increased. 8. Vehicles running & emitting more than prescribed limits must be challaned on the spot for Rs. 500. 9. All vehicles running above 15 years of age - especially cars & bikes should be seized on spot & sent to dismantling area. Receipt should be issued on spot for seizing the vehicles. 10. Only trucks heavier than 6 tonnes weight carrying capacity must only be on diesel. All other trucks ( including Delhi & NCR) less than 6 tonnes weight carrying capacity must be on CNG to run in Delhi. more
Apr 07
This kind of cut copy paste syndrome is done to justify one's action in voting for a party which is not able to sort out it's own house, what state will they lead Delhi to....... more
Apr 07
Let the people come forward and share their experiences rather than propoganda like this will diminish the image of AAP . like traffic inDelhi is worst and this must be priority for Governmnet. Parking on roads/ encroachment on pavements. Delhites voted AAP because there was no alternative in BJP & Congress. So nexttime it will not be repeated at all. AAP does not mean 5-6 faces in TV and newspaper. It is a party of masses so no TV discussion countering parties like BJP/ Congress is welcome. Rather do not counter them and do your work and work should speak by itself. more
Apr 07
