AAP to start month-long campaign to highlight MCD’s ‘failures’ under BJP

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The AAP is set to roll out a month-long campaign on Wednesday to highlight the BJP-controlled civic body’s “failures” in the national capital, starting with organising trips for the public to three infamous garbage hills located at the city borders.

Announcing the party’s decision at a press conference, Delhi Environment Minister and the AAP’s city unit convener Gopal Rai on Tuesday said the party leaders, in the first phase of the campaign, will take people to the three landfill sites — Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa — to show them the “biggest achievement” of the BJP, which has ruled the municipal corporation in the national capital for 15 years.

The trips to the three “mountains of garbage” will be organised on three days starting Wednesday under the theme ‘BJP ka chamatkar dekho, kude ka pahad dekho’ (See the BJP’s miracle, see the garbage hills), the AAP leader said.

He said if the dumping of garbage is stopped now, it will take at least 27 years to clear the landfill sites, going by “the BJP’s style” of work at the current pace and plan.

“The people of Delhi gave the BJP an opportunity to rule the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for 15 years, but the party completely failed in fulfilling its first and foremost responsibility, which is maintaining cleanliness. It has only given them garbage and dirt spread all across the city,” Rai alleged.

He claimed the cleanliness in Delhi has gone from “bad to worse” since the municipal polls were postponed in the garb of unification of the three erstwhile civic bodies, even as “the BJP’s top leadership took the command promising to bring a miraculous change” in the functioning of the MCD.

According to Rai, party leader Atishi will take the public to the Ghazipur landfill site on September 14, while Saurabh Bharadwaj will lead the visit to Okhla on September 15. On September 16, people will be taken to the Bhalswa landfill site under the leadership of Durgesh Pathak “so that they see the situation there and understand the problems of the people living in the vicinity”.

“The people are fed up as they do not know where register their grievances. Hence, the party has decided to organise the campaign in multiple phases. We won’t let Delhi continue to remain in such a situation,” Rai told reporters.

“Either garbage or the BJP will leave Delhi,” he said.

MCD, unified after the merger of three erstwhile civic bodies a few months ago, comes under the jurisdiction of the BJP-led central government.

The BJP ruled the three erstwhile municipal corporations and the AAP was the main opposition party till the terms of the civic bodies expired in May.

Elections to constitute a new civic body are yet to be held as an exercise for delimitation of municipal wards is underway.

The Office of the Delimitation Committee, set up by the Centre, on Tuesday said the work on draft delimitation of wards of the MCD has been completed and has asked people to send their suggestions and objections.