Choose between ‘AAP Nirbhar’ and Atmanirbhar, says Amit Shah ahead of MCD polls

PTI, Oct 20, 2022, 8:16 PM IST

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said the Arvind Kejriwal-led party wanted Delhi to be ‘AAP Nirbhar’ while the BJP wanted the national capital to be Atmanirbhar, and asked people to choose between the two in the MCD elections.

Speaking at the launch of a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant in Tehkhand here, Shah accused the Kejriwal government of step-motherly treatment to the erstwhile three civic bodies and said it owed Rs 40,000 crore to the municipal corporations.

”They (Kejriwal-led party) want Delhi to be AAP Nirbhar. We want it to become Atmanirbhar. In the next Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls, people will have to decide if they want to be AAP Nirbhar or Atmanirbhar,” Shah said at the south Delhi event.

Alleging that the AAP government had been spending heavily on publicity, he claimed Kejriwal was under the impression that development came from advertisements, but said ”this illusion can last only for five to seven years”.

”People will have to choose between ‘Vigyapan ki Rajniti’ (politics of advertisement) and ‘Vikas ki Rajniti’ (politics of development),” he added.

Shah assured that the would would be ready with a plan to make Delhi garbage-free by the time MCD elections are held and that the city would be in a position to process 100 per cent of its daily waste by 2025.

With completion of the delimitation process to alter wards under MCD limits and the Centre’s approval for the final draft, the last hurdle to holding the civic body polls has been cleared.

Shah said the WTE plant would help address the problem of waste processing and further strengthen Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Mission. He said the WTE in Tehkhand would process 2,000 metric tonne garbage daily and produce 25 MW electricity. The senior BJP leader added that when required, the city’s waste processing capacity could be further increased by 500 metric tonne. Another WTE plant with a capacity of 3,000 metric tonne will come up in Narela by August 2024, Shah said.

The Union Home minister also hoped that the reunified MCD would successfully bring an ecosystem that would make Delhi the world’s best capital. The MCD was trifurcated in 2012 during Sheila Dikshit’s tenure as chief minister. It was reunified by merging three civic bodies — North, South and East Municipal Corporations — through the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022. Hitting out at the AAP dispensation in Delhi, Shah said the government in the national capital didn’t pay its dues to the three erstwhile civic bodies to affect its functioning. He said the Centre had to reunify the three municipalities as the Delhi government did not pay Rs 40,000 crore in dues to the three erstwhile corporations.

He said the Delhi government did not clear the dues thinking that the public would get annoyed with the civic bodies.

Kejriwal later hit back at Shah over his accusations and asked the BJP not to make ”excuses” for its ”failure” in running the civic bodies for 15 years.

In a series of tweets in Hindi, the AAP supremo said people would have to decide whether they wanted a Delhi filled with garbage or a clean Delhi in the next civic body elections.

”For something you could not do in 15 years, now you want three more years for that? Why should people trust you? You won’t be able to do it. Now we will make Delhi garbage-free,” Kejriwal tweeted.