BJP to move no-trust motion against Delhi Govt.

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 22. The Delhi BJP unit has decided to bring in a no-confidence motion against the Sheila Dikshit Government during the monsoon session of the Delhi Assembly beginning this Monday September 24 to ``expose the corruption in the Congress(I) Government and its failure on all fronts''.

Addressing a joint press conference along with the Delhi BJP unit president, Mr. Mange Ram Garg, the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Prof.Jagdish Mukhi, charged the Sheila Dikshit Government with being neck-deep in corruption and said the Congress(I) MLAs had levelled serious allegations of corruption against the Chief minister inside and outside the Vidhan Sabha. ``There is rampant corruption in various departments and senior officers are doing work only on monetary considerations,'' he alleged. It is not only the Chief Minister, Ms.Sheila Dikshit, who is facing a probe by the Lokayukta but also her Transport Minister, Mr. Parvez Hashmi and the Food and Supplies Minister, Dr. Yoganand Shastri, who have now been issued notices by the Lokayukta.

Lashing out at Dr. Shastri for making a mess of the Public Distribution System (PDS), Prof. Mukhi said Delhi was one of the States named by the Supreme Court which had failed to implement the Centrally sponsored schemes for distribution of free food for the poor and weaker sections. ``It is shocking that despite repeated reminders and ample time at its disposal, the Delhi Government had failed to identify people living Below Poverty Line in the Capital. Now a notice has been issued by the court to the State Government to identify BPL categories within three weeks and report back the same.''

The court had sought the implementation status of the various schemes including the Employment Assurance Scheme, Mid-day Meal Scheme, Integrated Child Development Scheme, national Benefit Maturity Scheme for pregnant BPL women, National Old Age Pension Scheme for destitutes of over 65 years, Annapurna Scheme and the Antodaya Scheme. It is shameful the State Government does not even have information on these schemes.

Charging the ruling Congress(I) Government with failure on the economic front, Prof. Mukhi said the Finance Minister, Mr. Mahinder Singh Saathi, had been following totally faulty fiscal policies and under this had increased Sales Tax on almost all items including those consumed by the poor and weaker sections. Similarly sales tax exemptions had been withdrawn on many items for reasons best know to the Finance Minister. On the other hand, Stamp Duty on conveyance deed had been increased from eight per cent to 13 per cent which would prove disastrous for the economy of the State.

Prof. Mukhi said the wholesale trade and the small scale industries had started shifting out of Delhi and the distributive character of the city was being badly affected due to the wrong policies being followed by the Sheila Dikshit Government. Earlier, certain category of goods used to be cheaper in Delhi compared to other States but the situation is totally different and the opposite was happening.

Coming down heavily on the Delhi Government for taking the people of Delhi and the thousands of CNG autorickshaw and taxi owners for a ride, Prof. Mukhi said long queues outside the CNG filling stations were a gift of the Delhi Government to the people of Delhi. While the Supreme Court had clearly stated that it had never asked for conversion of autorickshaws and taxis into CNG mode, it was the Delhi Government which forced this scenario on thousands of people for various considerations. He charged the Transport Minister, Mr. Parvez Hashmi, was hand in glove with the manufacturers of these vehicles and that was the reason why he forced such an order on these poor people.

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