Kejriwal's first month in office doesn't impress Dikshit

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has failed to impress his predecessor and three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit with his performance during the first month in office which he completed on Friday.

“Kejriwal has not left any impression which could be spoken about,” said the former chief minister and veteran Congress leader, quickly adding that to be fair to the new government they should be given an year’s time to prove themselves.

The Kejriwal government has not done anything significant yet on women safety, she said, reminding that this was a major poll promise of the AAP.

Dikshit also slammed the scaling down of the AAP’s promise of giving free Wi-Fi from a commitment to give a city-wide free service to now talking of giving the service in certain pockets only .

“In government or politics, you cannot just promise something which you may not be able to deliver,” Dikshit told Deccan Herald.

“The AAP should have told the people before the elections that the free Wi-Fi will be provided to them after a gap of one year and that too for few initial 30 minutes, after which it will not be free,” she said.

Dikshit also questioned why the Kejriwal government did not give free water and power tariff relaxation to every household.

“Before the elections they never said the rebate will not be for all,” said the ex-chief minister of Delhi.

Dikshit also disagreed with the “dharna CM” approach of Kejriwal for recently sitting on a protest with Anna Hazare on the Land Acquisition Bill issue.

“It’s a little baffling. As a CM you sat with Hazare on a dharna...Have you really given up your role as a dharna leader (reference to January 2014 protest near Parliament) to become responsive to the new responsibility,” she said.

Asked about the power tariff cuts announced by the Kejriwal government and the decision to come out with a white paper on the power scenario, she said: “They are only buying time by talking of white paper and audit of power companies by saying that they will do something.” She also questioned the way the power tariffs were promised to be slashed and high hopes were built around the power companies’ audit.

“Do you really know the system of government... you can’t say what I would like to do... the DERC is the one which sets tariff,” she said.

The former chief minister said also talked about the discontinuation of the girl child welfare schemes which her government had started.

“When the Congress was in power, we worked on women safety, launched Ladali scheme and Aawaz Uthao movement for the respect and dignity of women,” she said.