Saturday, December 05, 2015

Why are we cursed in Delhi?

Ever since he came to power in Delhi earlier this year by a landslide, winning 67 seats out of 70 in the assembly, the Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal has been engaged in a guerrilla warfare with the Prime Minister. Burning with hunger for power his attacks on Mr Modi lack any basic courtesy, manners or respect. He came to power promising 1.5 million CCTV cameras for safety of women, making Delhi a hub for education and tourism, building primary health centers, schools and colleges and reducing VAT. He has done nothing. There was a massive Dengue epidemic this year, 38 people died. Why? Because Dengue is spread by mosquitoes, mosquitoes breed in stagnant water, water stagnated because drains were blocked, because Kejriwal would not release funds for the municipalities, which are controlled by the BJP. When people started to die he forced hospitals, including private ones, to accept more patients, for political grandstanding, completely ignoring the fact that hospitals cannot increase the number of beds in Intensive Care or trained nurses to care for very sick people in a short space of time. What he has done is to stop police from booking auto-rickshaws so that they are charging whatever they want, driving dangerously and creating traffic jams by indiscriminate parking. There are electricity black outs almost everyday, which never happened last year when there was no government in Delhi. In response to the High Court describing Delhi as a gas chamber, because of air pollution, Kejriwal has decreed that from 1 January vehicles with odd and even numbers will be allowed on streets on alternate days. Because Beijing did so. He probably fancies himself as a dictator, as in China. Which will create the mother of all chaos. Delhi does not have a public transport system like Kolkata, distances are enormous and there are no pavements for walking safely. Rich people can have 2 cars with odd and even numbers but the middle class will be severely restricted. They will be forced to take auto-rickshaws or taxis so we can expect fares to soar. The worst affected will be Delhi's offices and businesses because most of their employees commute on two-wheelers. Deliveries for e-commerce companies and takeaway food outlets depend exclusively on motorbikes, which would presumably be cut in half. If he had overseen cleaning and repairing of roads so that traffic moved smartly vehicular pollution would be cut in half as jams would disappear. To get cheap publicity Kejriwal wanted to facilitate cricket players on the playing field in Delhi, while a test match is in progress. Our lives have become miserable since this man grabbed power over us. To reward himself for our misery he has increased salaries of Members of the Assembly by 400%. Presumably his salary as well. What a curse on all of us.

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