Water, sewer, civic infra among main issues, say residents

Alok KN Mishra

NEW DELHI: Campaigning for the June 23 by-election to the Rajinder Nagar assembly constituency is expected to gather steam with the three main contenders filing their nominations on Monday. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominee, Durgesh Pathak, is seeking support on the development work carried out by the party’s government in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress candidates -- both former municipal councillors from the area -- are betting on the “local connect” and the work done under their tenures in the assembly segment.

The Rajinder Nagar seat became vacant after the sitting AAP legislator Raghav Chadha was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab, after the party’s resounding win in the assembly elections in the state.

The constituency is a unique mix of population with pockets of lower and upper middle class people, affluent avenues, jhuggi clusters, and villages.

The result, which will be declared on June 26, will not affect the power equation in the Delhi assembly where the AAP holds a massive majority with 62 seats out of 70, but experts believe that the since the polls are coming within a month of the unification of the municipal corporations, the result may help gauge the public mood. Also, they said, that it could be the only elections to be held this year with no development on the elections to the corporation, which may only happen after a long delimitation exercise.

For the BJP, a positive result could be a boost to their claims that the unification of MCD was a step in the right direction, and the Congress would like to use the elections as another opportunity to get an entry into the Delhi assembly. The party has not been able to send a single legislator to the House since the 2013 assembly elections.

Poll issues

According to local residents, the issues in the constituency range from parking to poor state of internal roads in many colonies, to lack of parks, to poor water supply, to choked sewers. Sunil Kumar Tanwar, a local from Naraina who runs a general store in the village, said: “We are not going to vote on the basis of the party, but on the basis of the candidate. The candidate who we find most promising and most sincere towards solving our problems, will get our votes.”

The availability of tap water at a low pressure is also a common problem across the constituency. Deepak Baweja, president, S-block (Double Storey) RWA New Rajinder Nagar, said poor supply of water is a major concern. “The water is supplied only once in the day, that too at oddhours, such as 4.45am. People need to wake up to fill up their overhead tanks. It is a long pending problem,” said Baweja.

In the villages, lack of civic infrastructure and sanitation are key issues. “The sewer line has not been changed or upgraded in the last over 30 years even as the population has increased,” said Devender Tanwar, a resident of Naraina.

Suraj Mandal, a resident of Gas Godam Jhuggi ,said: “Poor sanitation is a big problem.”