by admin | May 25, 2021 | Finance, News, Politics
New Delhi : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday announced that financial assistance for Resident Welfare Assocations (RWAs) and NGOs registered with the Delhi Parks and Gardens Society (DPGS) for maintenance of parks and gardens would be doubled from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.
“The financial assistance provided by the DPGS will now be uniform 90 per cent by the government and balance 10 per cent to be borne by the RWAs/NGOs,” he said.
Addressing 261 RWAs and NGOs from across Delhi, Kejriwal also announced that the grant of financial assistance will now not be linked with the categorization of colonies, and also requested the participants to get their damaged borewells or motors repaired with government support in the next 10 days.
“Thereafter, a uniform policy will be adopted so that no problem is faced on this ground by RWAs and NGOs,” he added.
Kejriwal also assured that the documentation for release of financial assistance will also be reduced to the minimum.
In 2017-18, 261 RWAs received financial assistance of approximate Rs 1.63 crore for maintaining 1,164 parks covering around 370 acres.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The row over who controls Delhi’s bureaucracy escalated on Wednesday as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia launched a full attack against the Centre for not letting the city government implement some major schemes by pressurising the officers.
“Delhi government’s scheme of doorstep ration delivery and CCTV installation have been left in a limbo,” Sisodia said, adding, “even though we have decision-making powers, the officers who implement these projects are under the Central government, which is deliberately causing obstruction in our work”.
“In a way, BJP (central government) is saying that you have been given the powers to take decisions, keep taking those decisions, but we won’t implement it,” he said.
On July 6, the Delhi government approved doorstep ration delivery scheme but Sisodia said that the officer rejected it by saying that he will ask the Law Department first. “They are just rotating the files to cause hindrance in the elected government’s work.”
“The big question that arises is if the Delhi government is taking a step in stopping black marketing in ration delivery, then why is the Central government, through their officers, trying to stop it,” he asked.
He also mentioned the proposal where people working on a contractual basis would be given 20 per cent bonus and how the officers, despite ministers’ approval of the project, rejected the decision.
He also said that the government’s CCTV installation project has again hit a snag due to recommendations made by Lt Governor’s committee which mandates permission from police before installation.
“According to the recommendations by the LG’s committee, anyone who wants to install CCTV cameras would have to get police permission. This is a huge setback for women safety,” he said.
Kejriwal also said that the licensing process will only increase corruption.
“What will police see before giving CCTV license? On what basis will police give license? It will only increase bribery. It’s a huge blow to women safety because all existing cameras in Delhi will have to be removed till they obtain a license and all new CCTVs will have to wait for a license,” he tweeted.
Kejriwal, on Wednesday, also approached Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and told him how the Lt Governor and Centre are “twisting the orders of Supreme Court.”
“He said that he will discuss the matter with his officers and meet me again on July 16,” Kejriwal said after the meeting.
Last week, the Supreme Court held that the executive power of the Centre is limited to only land, public order, and police, while the elected government of Delhi enjoys powers on all other subjects, including “services”.
Lt. Governor Anil Baijal has, however, maintained that the Union Home Ministry has advised him to keep exercising powers over “services” because the 2015 MHA notification remains valid until the regular bench of the apex court decides on it.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, News, Politics
New Delhi : In a major move to fight air pollution in Delhi, the city government on Wednesday approved the hiring of a consultant to run 1,000 electric buses estimated to cost Rs 2,500 crore in the national capital as promised in its 2018-19 Budget.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the development on Twitter after the move was cleared at a cabinet meeting.
“Cabinet approves hiring of consultant to run 1,000 electric buses in Delhi. A big step in modernizing Delhi’s transport sector and reducing pollution,” Kejriwal said.
Earlier this month, the Delhi government had informed the Supreme Court that each vehicle would cost around Rs 2.5 crore.
The Delhi Assembly had passed the 2018-19 “green” budget with a focus on fighting pollution by commissioning 1,000 electric buses and providing subsidies for switching to non-polluting fuel.
As per a 1998 order of the Supreme Court, Delhi should have a fleet of 10,000 buses for public transport but currently it has only 5,815 buses.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
By Saeed Naqvi,
Does the stunning victory of a 28-year-old Latino bartender in New York this week over a 10-term Democratic lawmaker bear any resemblance to AAPs victory under a political novice, Arvind Kejriwal in February 2015? He thrashed Narendra Modis resurgent BJP and a Congress Chief Minister entering her fourth term. Of course, there are a thousand differences in detail but these are dwarfed by a basic similarity — popular resentment with establishments everywhere. It is a wave sweeping all electoral democracies across the globe. I have just seen the toppling of the Italian ruling class in Rome. Wherever they can, establishments are fighting back tooth and nail. Kejriwals endless travails are part of this counterpunch.
The winner in New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was, in her last job, mixing cocktails in a Manhattan bar, sometimes on 18-hour shifts to help avoid foreclosure of her mother’s property. But more meaningful for her career was her stint as Bernie Sanders’ campaigner during the 2016 election. Little wonder she stands on a similar, leftist platform, demanding universal health care, ending tuition fees at public colleges and abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Still recovering from the shock defeat happens to be Joe Cowley for whom the Democratic Party had built many castles in the air. The same party had dug its heels in so firmly for Hillary Clinton as the Presidential candidate that every argument pointing to Bernie Sanders’ chances of victory over Trump were discarded.
I was in Washington for the campaign, surrounded by Clinton enthusiasts who would not answer a straightforward question:
“Popular disgust with the Washington establishment was unmistakable. Given this reality, by what logic do you see Clinton as a winner: she is the very epitome of the Washington establishment.”
Alexandria’s victory places her in line as the youngest woman in Congress after the November elections. This could well be the thin end of the wedge, gradually opening up spaces for younger and more radical candidates.
Considering that Trumpism too is consolidating itself on white working and middle class grievances, the divisions in American society may become more shrill. Once they rise to a crescendo, the clashing of Cymbals will be deafening even though the talk of a civil war is rank exaggeration.
A considerable segment of the Democratic Party, which refrained from radicalism during the 2016 campaign, appears to have sensed the ground realities, almost anticipating the New York result. Democrats like Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren signed onto Bernie Sanders bill for universal Health Care, something they had avoided two years ago when Sanders first introduced the Bill. The platform is picking up.
The New York outcome has clearly set the cat among the pigeons in establishment circles and not just in the US. Another resounding punch will be administered on the establishment’s chin when Andrez Manuel Lopez Obrador nicknamed AMLO, almost as far Left as the late Chavez in Venezuela, triumphs in the Mexican elections on Sunday. The sharp anti-US edge to this result can safely be attributed to Trump’s open disdain for the southern neighbour.
A Bloomberg banner headline reads: “Listen, Trump: Firebrand Lopez Obrador Set to Win Landslide in Mexico.”
There is, however, a welcoming warmth to this turn in world affairs in progressive circles in Europe, not the least of it in the higher echelons of Britain’s Labour Party.
Last week I attended a meeting in support of Democracy and Human Rights in Mexico organised in the House of Commons by Laura Alvarez Corbyn, the Labour leader’s Mexican wife. Jeremy Corbyn sat through the meeting, signalling his support for progressive causes.
Is the Democratic Party in the US learning lessons from real life? Until the New York result there was no evidence of any change of heart in the party’s higher reaches. In fact, a year ago, a Fox News poll establishing Bernie Sanders’ exceptional popularity was largely ignored. The poll showed Sanders a +28 rating above all US politicians on both ends of the political spectrum. Trust The Guardian, London, being the only newspaper to pick up the issue. The paper’s Trevor Timm wrote:
“One would think with numbers like that, Democratic politicians would be falling all over themselves to be associated with Sanders, especially considering the party as a whole is more unpopular than the Republicans and even Donald Trump right now. Yet instead of embracing his message, the Establishment wing of the party continues to resist him at almost every turn, and they seem insistent that they don’t have to change their ways to gain back the support of huge swathes of the country.”
On current showing, the British Establishment demonstrates greater suppleness. A few months ago The Economist welcomed Corbyn, a socialist in the Michael Foot mould, as Britain’s next Prime Minister. That the Economist, a pillar of the Western establishment, should acquiesce in Corbyn’s impending Premiership could not have been honeyed music to Blairites in the Labour party like Lord Peter Mandelson who is committed to “undermining Corbyn”. This kind of cussedness is counterproductive and this becomes clear when a Labour back bencher retorts:
“Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister implementing policies that actually benefit the people terrifies the Establishment. It is no surprise that Mandelson has found space in his busy schedule on an Oligarch’s Yacht to attempt to undermine Jeremy.”
(A senior commentator on political and diplomatic affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com. The views expressed are personal.)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Nivedita Singh,
New Delhi : The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to give another push to its demand for full statehood to Delhi with a public campaign, but experts said it was not a burning issue among residents and a way should be found to give more powers to the elected government to make its work easier.
The issue of statehood for Delhi has been raised for the decades but no party has given it so much thrust as the AAP. It was a key part of its manifesto, the party had released a draft bill in 2016 and passed a resolution in June this year.
Its leaders — Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia — have consistently said that statehood will usher in speedier development of Delhi besides making the entire administration responsible to the elected representatives in the way it is in other states.
Delhi, at present, is a Union Territory with special status. Unlike other states, matters concerning law and order and land fall in the purview of the central government. And with the Centre controlled by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government, AAP has been having a running battle for greater control and freedom to act.
Former Lok Sabha and Delhi Assembly Secretary Sudarshan Kumar Sharma said that Delhi can become a full-fledged state only if the constitution is amended. He said capital of a country has its own administrative requirements.
“Nowhere in the world is the capital of a nation is under the rule of a state government. The capital belongs to all,” Sharma told IANS.
Delhi got a full-fledged assembly in 1991 after the passage of the Constitution (69th Amendment) Act. The Act also provides that the Lieutenant Governor, appointed by the President, will be the administrator of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
Sharma, who has written several books on issues related to Delhi, said the common man “was never and will never be interested in full statehood issues”.
“There have been movements for so many things in the country but people in Delhi never demanded such a thing (statehood),” Sharma said.
He said the issue had been raked up in the past and “there must be a reason all the previous government could not succeed in making Delhi a state”.
Former Lok Sabha Secretary General, P.D.T. Achary, said that the statehood demand is genuine and legitimate, especially when “the rift between the Centre and state government is so high”.
“The present situation is unacceptable. The major question is what sort of administration Delhi wants. There should be special arrangements. Some thought has to go into this,” he said, adding that the interest of the central government should also be taken into consideration.
Subrata Mukherjee, a political analyst who taught at Delhi University, said that the statehood issue has been articulated by many parties but has not been fulfilled — and there is no apparent demand for it among the people.
He said there was confusion due to multiplicity of authorities in Delhi and statehood can further complicate the issue.
“I feel it is not required. Delhi enjoys special powers. People don’t really want Delhi to be a full state. They want services and till the time they are being served, they are happy,” he said.
He said AAP had done well in health, education and they should keep doing good work with the powers they have. “Statehood is not desirable.”
Narender Kumar, Professor, Centre for Political Studies at Jawahar Lal Nehru University, said most capital cities in the world have structures similar to that of Delhi’s.
“I feel statehood is not required and would not be appropriate but there should be more powers with the Delhi government,” he said.
He noted that the demand for statehood had not been met when the same party was in power in Delhi and at the Centre and “now it is all the more difficult”.
Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said her 15-year-tenure saw governments led by the BJP and Congress at the Centre.
“Things were not always as I wished them to be. I too faced issues, but instead of running to the public with all that (complaints), I tried to find solutions. We cannot stop all other work and sit with an issue. We worked and had a rapport with both the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and with the Manmohan Singh government,” Dikshit told IANS.
“The only way to make Delhi a full state is to change the constitution. If they are able to do that, then it is fine; otherwise, Delhi is and will remain a Union Territory, partly governed by the Centre,” she said.
Dikshit said Congress had also demanded statehood but was not successful.
“We tried our best but we all have to respect the constitution,” she added.
BJP leader Vijender Gupta, who is the Leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly, contended that the AAP does not have any concrete plans about statehood and there should be a proper discussion on the issue.
“Just saying things will make no difference. Any new model that is proposed should not have flaws,” he said.
(Nivedita Singh can be contacted at nivedita.singh@ians.in )
—IANS
