700 litres of free water will be new govt’s biggest challenge
PROVIDING SOLUTIONS With AAP’s key members coming from a technology background, the new government’s solution to a lot of problems is also technology.
NEW DELHI: The sight of government tankers reaching the narrow lanes of Sangam Vihar has given Suresh Devi, 46, the faith that she voted right this election.
In the last 15 years that she has lived here, she has never seen water tankers outside her one-bedroom house unless she paid for it. A piped water connection is something that she hasn’t even imagine.
“If the government wants us to pay for this, we are even ready to do that provided the supply is regular,” said an ecstatic Devi.
The Aam Aadmi Party has been at the receiving end of derision and mocking by people who think providing 700 litres of free water per day will be the new government’s biggest challenge.
It is, in fact, the promise of giving regular and piped water connections to all households that is going to be among the biggest challenges for the AAP government.
Since AAP’s key members and advisors are from a technology background — a number of them are from IITs— the new government’s solution to a lot of problems is also technology. It starts with a GPS enabled tanker distribution system which, much like the public transport system in western countries, will have a fixed schedule of distribution online.
“It is the party’s belief that a fixed amount of water is a fundamental right and hence the promise of free water. This, however, is only for piped water connection holders. Our real challenge is giving all households a piped water connection in five years,” said a senior party leader.
In a number of areas in south Delhi, AAP won because of its promise of regular water supply. Residents of parched constituencies such as Tughlakabad, Mehrauli, Sangam Vihar, Chhatarpur and Deoli have had to do with private tankers for the past several years. One private 1,000 litre tanker costs `1,500.
According to records, out of 33.4 lakh households in Delhi, close to 20 lakh have access to piped water. AAP’s promise is to give connections to the remaining households in the coming five years. The government has said it will not discriminate between slums, unauthorized colonies, villages and authorised colonies.
Will the promise of laying these pipelines be the undoing of the government? “The idea has been discussed over and over again with experts. It is certainly possible but there are a lot of prerequisites.
We need water from the Munak Canal, we need to plug gaps in supply and we need to rein in the water mafia. This is a lot of work in itself and cooperation from the existing structures is not always forthcoming,” said a senior leader.
In Deoli last year, AAP MLA, Prakash Jharwal spent 16 days in jail for allegedly misbehaving with a junior engineer over water availability.
How these structures respond, keeping in mind the overwhelming majority that the party has got, remains to be seen. In his first speech as the new chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday made it clear that there would be no express delivery of poll promises. “Don’t hound us for deadlines… governments don’t run like that,” he warned the media while promising to deliver in a “mazboot” (solid and substantial) manner.
Durability — of his tenure or initiatives — was not the top consideration when Kejriwal was the CM for 49 days last year. Promises of lower utility bills and clean governance were sold to the electorate with tight — some as tight as within 48 hours of assuming office — deadlines. Despite a spectacular debut, AAP did not have the strength of numbers and the awkward alliance with Congress was not supposed to last.
Having played on populism, AAP had no option but to hastily push through much of their 17-point agenda. While resigning last February, Kejriwal had promised to continue the good work. Last week, he rode a tsunami of support to return to the CM’s office. Since the last winter, Kejriwal the politician has matured and mellowed a lot. In his second innings, he wants to go slow and steady but the expectation of voters is sky high.
Governing a state with limited powers, AAP would have to negotiate with the BJP-ruled Central government and the municipal corporations which report to the Union home ministry for administrative matters. Reduced to three seats in the worst-ever defeat in Assembly elections in Delhi, BJP may be tempted to play the Opposition through the Centre or the civic bodies. It better not.
For one, Kejriwal has already struck a conciliatory chord, seeking Centre’s cooperation to fulfil the Great Delhi dream. It is a gesture no political party can afford to snub publicly. Particularly not the BJP that, by its own admittance, suffered an electoral rout due to a largely negative, somewhat arrogant and often distasteful campaign.
In two-and-half years since its inception, AAP has succeeded in selling a strong brand of political activism -- not just to the voters but even the rival parties. Its idea of responsive and corruptionfree governance mirrored in PM Narendra Modi’s election messages. AAP populist agenda – lower power bills, free water etc — now features prominently in BJP’s Vision Document.
AAP will require central cooperation to fulfil at least two dozen poll promises, such as legislating Swaraj and Janlokpal Bills, building an integrated network of public transport, making Delhi water and power sufficient, reviving the Yamuna and providing housing for all. Incidentally, except the two legislations, these also figure on the BJP’s list of poll promises.
Much of his 70-point agenda at stake, Kejriwal has already pushed the envelope by telling the PM that “with the BJP in majority at the Centre and AAP in Delhi, there was no better time for granting full statehood to Delhi”. But after demanding the same for over 15 years as the Opposition in Delhi, the BJP has fallen silent on the issue since it took charge at the centre.
This is not an encouraging sign. A section of the BJP feel that the party has already faced anti-incumbency due to inadequate performance of the municipal corporations it runs in Delhi. The civic polls are due in 2017. If AAP contests these elections, it will be a reality check for both parties as their destinies appear to be intertwined in Delhi for now.
As early as in 2017, Delhi will get to decide if it is happy with the efforts to regularise unauthorised colonies — an AAP promise but essentially the job of BJP-run civic bodies — or if the public dealing departments — again mostly under the BJP-run corporations — have become less corrupt. Quite a few of AAP’s other poll promises — of building public toilets, improving schools or fixing last-mile connectivity by regulating e-rickshaws — will also have to be realised by the civic bodies.
The emphatic Delhi mandate is also very candid. While the AAP can’t afford to take it easy or crib about political roadblocks, the BJP better not betray its own agenda by stalling the state government’s initiatives just because it can. There is no fooling the voters and the next Delhi test is just 26 months away.