Kejriwal govt a ‘jumla’ govt: Maken

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 25

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Maken said the Kejriwal government is nothing but another “jumla government”, just making tall promises without fulfiling them.

Responding to the Kejriwal government’s announcement on property tax, Maken said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has not fulfiled any of the promises made to the people in its assembly election manifesto. “Where is free WiFi, marshals in DTC buses, five lakh toilets and other tall pre-poll promises made by the AAP? In the past two years, the AAP government’s performance in every field, including fiscal management, has been dismal,” he said.

Maken said according to the latest Economic Survey of Delhi, the growth has slowed down for the first time in the past five years. He said in this year’s budget, there is a revenue shortfall of, approximately, Rs 4,500 crore. Delhi used to be a fiscal surplus state.

He said in 2013-14, the last year of the Congress government in Delhi, fiscal surplus used to be 1.9 per cent of GSPD, which has now alarmingly come down to 0.24 per cent. He added that from a fiscal surplus state, the Kejriwal government is soon going to turn Delhi into a fiscal deficit state.

Maken said after ruining Delhi through the incompetent AAP government, Kejriwal will inflict more damage on the people of Delhi if the AAP comes to power in the MCDs. But the people of Delhi now know the true face of Kejriwal, who is nothing but an absentee chief minister.

He said the Congress has prepared a roadmap on how to make the MCDs financially self-reliant by raising its own resources, and it has been placed in the public domain. “We are not making empty promises, but telling the people how we will do it. We challenge the AAP to do the same without resorting to empty rhetorics. Delhi needs incentivized growth, not mindless promises,” Maken added.