City wants better governance

With less than a month to go for the Delhi Assembly elections, political parties have started campaigning on a war footing. Leaders are out on the roads pleading for votes, walls and bridges are swamped with posters either greeting you on Diwali or badmouthing political rivals, and now, names of local candidates have also been announced.

Opinion polls commissioned by each party tell us who the winner will be (obviously, themselves), but no one talks of the issues faced by Delhiites or what changes they are expecting with a new government. So Metrolife decided to speak to a cross-section of Delhi to know what issues figure on top of their head, just ahead of December 4.

Delhi’s autowallahs are known to be particularly opinionated. Dharam Pal, who’s been driving an auto for 20 years now, says, “Bhrashtachar sirf rashtriya mudda nahi hai, par Dilli ki bhi samasya hai (Corruption is not just a national issue but is a problem in Delhi as well). And it affects the economically weaker persons the most.”

“Today, you visit any department of the Delhi government, files do not move without exchange of money. Every day, poor autowallahs like me are harassed by the police and various other agencies for no fault of ours. Money is extorted from us and distributed among the higher-ups. How long will we put up with this?” he rues.

For the salaried gentry, price rise seems to be the burning issue of the moment. Rakesh Agarwal, accountant with a private company in the city, says, “I buy a packet of milk in the morning for a certain amount of money, and in the evening I find out that it’s up by a few more bucks. It’s the same with vegetables. Every week I realise that my grocery budget needs to be doubled. I am sure the State government can do something to control these things.”

His wife Meeta says, “School education has become extremely expensive. Every year private schools are raising their admission and monthly fee manifold. What is the government doing? Why aren’t they bringing any regulations to check this crass commercialisation? Either you raise the standards of government schools or discipline the private ones.”

Kusum Jain, an elderly resident of Hauz Khas, says, “This issue has been plaguing Delhi for a long time now and has also been raised by the media, especially after the Commonwealth Games, but nobody seems to be listening. Why do we have so many civic agencies and no nodal agency to coordinate their work?”

“We have the MCD carpeting a road after complaints by locals. Then DJB digs it up to fix a water pipeline problem. A few days later the PWD breaks it again to fix an electricity cable problem, and the street comes back to its original condition. It is the same reason why we have Connaught Place looking the way it does now even three years after the Games.”

Rampant unauthorised constructions are also a worry for many Delhiites. Sanjiv Mehra of Lajpat Nagar says, “Delhi is becoming a concrete jungle – both the old and the new areas. Encroachments are eating up our green spaces and creating dangerous living conditions. Whichever party comes into power next must look into this.”

“Delhi is known for its open areas and greenery. That should be maintained.”