BJP fears layoffs in Delhi

October 22nd, 2008 – 8:53 pm ICT by IANS

 

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) The Indian capital may have to pay a heavy price for the global meltdown as 90 percent of the people working here are employed in the services sector and would be affected by any lay-offs, fears Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Harshvardhan. “Since the Manmohan Singh government has totally downplayed the importance of the domestic sector and indexed India’s economic growth to globalisation, we fear that a large number of small, medium, and large companies based in the capital would be hit hard as their clients abroad are downing shutters,” Harshvardhan told reporters Wednesday.

 

“Exporters of garments, value-added jewellery and other products based in Delhi and NCR (national capital region) are already feeling the pinch because new orders are becoming scarce. Thousands of people employed there are facing a dim future,” he added.

 

“Delhi’s garment exporters, who supply to world famous brand owners like Christian Dior, Gap and Lacoste employ thousand of people. If these fall on hard times, Delhi cannot avoid the social and economic impact,” he said.

 

He further said that the recent Jet Airways episode where 1,900 employees were sacked – though taken back the very next day – is just a preview of things to come.

 

He asked the government to immediately promulgate an ordinance banning companies from laying off employees.

 

“No company, big or small, should be allowed to take arbitrary steps because once lay-off begins in one sector, it invariably causes a cascading effect ultimately hurting the wider economy,” he said.

 

Harshvardhan said, if voted to power, BJP will come out with a strategy to generate jobs.

Jaitley to be party’s master strategist in Delhi

22 Oct 2008, 0122 hrs IST, Dipak Kumar Dash, TNN

 

NEW DELHI: Even as Congress looks to blunt the anti-incumbency factor, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley has been asked to help steer the saffron party to a repeat of the successful MCD poll effort in the forthcoming Assembly elections.

 

Jaitley has begun attending the meetings at BJP’s Delhi state office and is involved in the identification of issues and strategising. Having been associated with BJP’s success in states like Gujarat, Bihar, Punjab and Karnataka, he has reputation and experience that the party is banking on.

 

Though the Congress has been on the backfoot, Jaitley’s task will not be any easier as BJP has often seemed a divided house in the Capital. Ambiguity over leadership saw jockeying between Delhi leaders and this mean’t that former minister Vijay Goel and state chief Harshvardhan were often working at cross purposes.

 

The fear of heightened infighting, and absence of a leader who could command sufficient respect, saw BJP turning to its veteran Vijay Malhotra to lead its challenge against chief minister Sheila Dikshit. Thereafter ticket selection will be, as always, critical and all eyes will be on how factional demands are adjusted against winnability criteria.

 

Jaitley is familiar with Delhi and its problems but has also felt that some local and national issues can merge in favour of BJP.

 

Although official announcement is yet to be made by the central leadership, Jaitley told Times City, “I have been asked by my party president to extend my services in Delhi elections and I am doing it with all sincerity for best results.”

 

BJP using RTI to nail govt

22 Oct 2008, 0121 hrs IST, Dipak Kumar Dash, TNN

NEW DELHI: This is the first Assembly election in Delhi where the opposition seems to be making full use of the RTI Act to catch the government on th

e wrong foot. During the 2003 elections, RTI was still a relatively new concept and parties had not quite realized its potential as a weapon in a democracy.

 

Delhi BJP started its own RTI unit three months ago after some of its leaders started feeling that the city government was spending too much public money for an “image makeover” by issuing frequent and irrelevant advertisements. The unit has since unearthed information about how the government spent over Rs 45 crore in advertisements during 2007-08 and 2008-09 financial years, apart from nailing the government in numerous other issues.

 

What is all the more surprising is that the replies obtained under the RTI showed that out of Rs 7.87 crore spent on advertisements in 2007-08, approximately Rs 4.9 crore was non-planned expenditure, said a senior BJP leader.

 

Armed with information obtained using RTI, the party’s chief ministerial nominee Vijay Kumar Malhotra has attacked the government over the fact that only 1,716 people have been given a state government job in the 10 years of its rule. “Currently, nine district employment offices, two special employment offices for the handicapped, one special employment office for ex-servicemen and three university employment information and guidance bureaus are functioning. But the government has only been able those few jobs,” said an official release issued by his office.

 

The cell has also obtained “valuable” information about the Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojna under which the state government was supposed to provide houses for the urban poor. “To date they have acquired land only in one village in Poot Khurd in Outer Delhi. The government had promised to create 60,000 houses by September this year. But an RTI reply shows how only 9,436 housing units are coming up,” said a party leader.

 

BJP state unit president Dr Harshvardhan said, “We started the cell with an idea to find out information from government departments. It was a constructive step taken to create a healthy public opinion. We are not looking at this initiative for political purpose only.”

 

RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal said, “The opposition plays a very important role in democracy. Earlier the opposition used to take up non-issues because they had no information about the developmental aspects. Opposition parties should put the information collected through RTI in public domain. Rather than talking about caste and religion, parties should focus on how money has been by the government and what has happened to the developments.”

 

 

 

 

 

Delhi police begins identifying sensitive booths

Source: PTI

 

NEW DELHI: Delhi police has started the process of identifying “troublesome” or “sensitive” polling stations for the November 29 Assembly election.

 

The Delhi Electoral office has asked the police to identify sensitive areas as per new Assembly boundaries defined under delimitation process.

 

They will then be further divided into communally sensitive places and areas from where bogus voting has been reported in the past or where situation is “not conducive”.

 

“We have asked the police to rope in district election officers as well as they too are working at the ground level and aware of the undercurrents in their districts. They can also better identify the polling stations which are prone to violence due to communal flare-upw or bogus voting,” a senior official at the Delhi Chief Electoral Office said.

 

He said, depending on the gravity of the problem, police will have to seek additional forces to maintain vigil during the election.

 

During the last Assembly election in 2003, while 29 polling booths had been declared “hypersensitive” and another 211 were identified as “sensitive”.

 

At least 35,000 security personnel including central paramilitary forces were deployed across the capital while a reserve of 20,000 personnel were on stand-by to meet any eventuality.

 

Like the last election, Home Guards will also be pressed into service during the polls. The police have also been asked to prepare a list of criminals including “bad characters” who are likely to indulge in bootlegging and other illegal activities during the elections.

Cong siblings jam ticket queue

New Delhi

 For a common party worker getting a ticket to contest Assembly elections is
proving to be not an easy proposition; his hard work of years in the field is being pitted
against the pedigree of children from political families. A party organisation and electoral
constituency is seen as just another zamindari, a permanent settlement or physical estate
to be handed over as property to another family member. This practice is not limited to
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi. The story is common to
almost all the political parties. The only exceptions are the Communist Parties and the
BJP. From Congress MP Krishna Tirath to former Deputy Mayor Pannalal Khairwal, all
seeks ticket for the Assembly elections for their family members. Keeping in view of the
Assembly polls, Delhi Vidhan Sabha Speaker Choudhury Prem Singh is seeking ticket
for his councilor son Pramod Choudhury from Deoli ward. The newly created Deoli
constituency is a reserved seat. It is considered a safe seat for Congress. Sitting Congress
MP from Karol, Krishna Tirath has pitched for her husband Vijay Tirath from Patel
Nagar reserved seat. Insiders say the Congress MP is lobbying hard to get ticket for the
Assembly poll for her husband. Rajesh Lilothia, MLA from erstwhile Baljit Nagar
constituency is also eying Patel Nagar seat as his original seat Baljit Nagar has been removed from the electoral map of Delhi after the implementation of Delimitation
Commission recommendations. Congress MLA from Nand Nagri, Baljore Singh’s
brother AR Joshi wanted to contest from Gokulpuri seat. Singh’s constituency Nand
Nagri has been merged with Gokulpuri and Seemapuri. Amulya Maurya, daughter of late
Congress leader BP Maurya is seeking ticket from Gokulpuri constituency. Maurya, a
lecturer in Delhi University, is now keen to try her luck in politics. Her father BP Maurya
was general secretary of the AICC.

DELHI’S BATTLE OF BALLOT

Polling to be conducted on
Nov 29

Date of notification | Nov 4

Date for filing nominations | Nov 11

Last date for scrutiny of nominations | Nov 12

Last date for withdrawal of nominations | Nov 14

Electorate according to draft rolls | 1 cr & 9 lakh

Polling stations | 10,849

Counting of votes | Dec 8

ASSEMBLY SNAPSHOT

Total seats | 70

Cong won | 47

BJP won | 20

(One BJP MLA, Dayanand Chandela, has now joined Cong. One seat was won by Ramvir Singh Bidhuri who was with NCP in 2003 and has now shifted to Cong. Deputy Speaker Shoaib Iqbal represents Janata Dal (S) and Ranbir Singh Kharb won as an independent)

BATTLES IN PAST

1993 saw first state elections. BJP came to power with M L Khurana as CM. BJP tenure saw three CMs in all. Sahib Singh Verma took over from Khurana, and Sushma Swaraj became CM just before polls in 1998. Cong came to power with Sheila Dikshit as CM. In 2002, Cong returned returned to power with Dikshit

MCD poll reversal |

Of 272 seats, BJP won 163 in 2007. The number has shrunk to 161 as deputy mayor Sawinderjeet Singh Bajwa died last year and Meghraj and Meenakshi Chandila moved to Cong. Cong made it to
   the opposition benches originally with 67 seats; it’s now 69. BSP made its presence felt with 17, NCP 2, Indian National Lok Dal 2, LJP 3, JMM 2 and 15 independents

Why 2007 was significant |

In 1997, BJP came to power but in 2002 it was swept out by the Cong. Infighting and anti-incumbency, along with the BSP factor, saw Cong lose out to BJP in the 2007 municipal polls. These were the first polls fought on 272 seats after delimitation. Smaller wards made the 2007 elections different

MAIN PARTIES

Cong and BJP. Tough for Cong as it fights for a third term. BJP riding high on its MCD victory and wins in other states. BSP fast emerging as a force that could play spoilsport. Its role in 2007 MCD polls indicated this. It damaged Cong on many seats

DELIMITATION FALLOUT

First assembly polls after delimitation exercise. Now all 70 constituencies are of similar size with an average population of not more than 1.97 lakh. Delimitation has created 19 new constituencies while 19 no longer exist. It will affect many sitting MLAs adversely. For instance, constituencies of MLA Kiran Walia and Tajdar Babar have disappeared. CM’s constituency Gole Market has a new name, New Delhi, with some additions from nearby areas. Her status unaffected

CANDIDATES FOR TOP JOB

BJP has named Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Congress says AICC has instructed that decision to be taken when the new MLAs are elected. They will decide whyo will lead them

POLL ISSUES

Congress | Regularization of unauthorised colonies, housing for the residents of slum and JJ clusters, development, transparent government, ladli scheme for the girl child
BJP | Inflation, terrorism and the fear of it, Sheila Dikshit’s poor governance, her callous statements and corruption

 

Parvin fights for farmers

Daily News & Analysis

 

The actor is holding a ‘non-violent dharna’ in his ancestral village near Delhi; the government had acquired a lot of land from the farmers and has not paid them their dues. Actor Parvin Dabas is fighting for a noble cause. He has taken it upon himself to stand by the farmers in his ancestral village called Kanjhawla in outer Delhi.  It’s been over a month now that the farmers have been holding a dharna. The Delhi government had acquired 1,400 acres of land from them between 2005 and 2007 and has still not paid them their dues. The seized land also includes Parvin’s father’s land.

 

Parvin says, “When the Delhi government acquired the land in 2005 and 2007, they didn’t even tell us why they did it. Later on, they said that the land was been used to build small scale industries.” That apart, Parvin says, “For the farmers whose land was acquired in 2005, the Delhi government announced that they would reimburse them with Rs 20-25 lakh per acre whereas it was announced that the farmers whose land was acquired in 2007 would get Rs 70-75 lakh per acre. The amount the government is offering is lesser than the market value of the land. The undeveloped land is worth at least Rs 1.5-2 crore per acre.”

 

Now, the dharna outside the deputy commissioner’s office in the village seems to be working. The government has agreed to pay the farmers (from whom they had acquired land in 2005) Rs 52 lakh per acre. Parvin says, “The revised rate is nothing compared to the market rate. Even if the government is not giving us the market price, they should at least give us Rs 70-75 lakh, the amount that they are paying to the land owners from whom they acquired land in 2007. Also, the farmers should get a share in the small scale industry.” The actor says that they are holding the ‘non-violent dharna’ because there was no progress happening. “Though Sonia Gandhi had requested Shiela Dixit (chief minister of Delhi) to do something about this issue, she didn’t do anything,” he says. He adds, “Now, we want a de-notification regarding the land. The government cannot act as a property dealer like this. They are paying the farmers a meagre sum and are selling the land for a higher amount.”

Delhi polls: Congress to highlight development, BJP price rise

Source: Economic Times

 

NEW DELHI: As the Election Commission Tuesday announced Nov 29 as the date for the Delhi assembly elections, the ruling Congress said development wo

uld be its main poll plank while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it would take on the administration on price rise and terrorism. “We are ready and happy that the suspense has ended. Now we will start preparations for the elections with full confidence,” said Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. “We will respond to all issues that the opposition parties raise. For 10 years we have worked for the people of Delhi, we would like to take that work forward,” Dikshit added.

 

Dikshit’s Congress government may face a strong anti-incumbency factor this time after ruling the capital for 10 years. But Dikshit said she feels there would be a pro- incumbency vote. Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president JP Aggarwal said he has full confidence that his party would return to power in Delhi for the third time. “We are strong enough to defend ourselves from the attack of the BJP. By end October we will announce our candidates and our manifesto. Our main issue for the election will be development,” Aggarwal added. As per the Election Commission’s announcement, Delhi elections will take place Nov 29 and the counting of votes will take place December 8. Delhi has a total of 70 assembly seats, of which 58 are for candidates belonging to general category and 12 for those of the reserved category. At present the Congress has 47 seats in the assembly, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 20, while one each are with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Janata Dal-Secular and one with an independent. Ten years ago, when the Congress came to power in Delhi, one of the major issues was price rise and inflation. This time around, the Congress government would be facing the same set of issues. Besides issues like development, water and electricity, terrorism and security are also expected to be major issues in these polls.

 

BJP, which is the main opposition party, stated that the party is all geared up for the elections and expects to win with two-thirds majority. “Our party is ready and we hope we will win with two-thirds majority, similar to the way we won in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections,” said Vijay Kumar Malhotra, the BJP’s veteran leader and their chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Delhi elections. “Now the model code of conduct will start and the Congress government will no more be able to misguide the people of the capital through advertisements worth millions, which they were publishing in newspapers,” Malhotra added.

“Our manifesto is nearly ready and we will now prepare the list of candidates who will be given the tickets. We have our charge-sheet ready against the Congress government,” Malhotra said.

 

Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan said: “The election manifesto would be announced in the next couple of weeks.” Delhi BJP spokesperson Mewa Ram Arya stated that terrorism, price rise and Sheila Dikshit’s failure in providing basic facilities like water and electricity would be the major issues on which they would fight the assembly elections.

 

While the BJP and the Congress are planning to target each other, another party that is expected to play a key role in the Delhi elections is Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). BSP’s Delhi unit head, Brahm Singh Bidhuri, said, “We have for long been ready for elections and have already announced our candidates for 66 assembly constituencies. We hope to win around 40 seats.” Asked about the issues his party would fight the elections on, Bidhuri said: “Both the BJP and the Congress in their manifesto had promised full statehood to Delhi but none did it. If we come to power, our first aim will be to get Delhi complete statehood.

 

“Price rise and sealings (on commercial establishments in residential areas) would be the other issues on which we will contest the assembly elections. As far as terrorism is concerned, it is a gift of the Congress,” Bidhuri added. Bidhuri said the BSP’s national president Mayawati would also come to Delhi before the elections this time. Delhi’s chief electoral officer Satbir Silas Bedi said: “We are ready for the elections. We have already published photo electoral rolls for the 24 newly delimited assembly constituencies of the capital. We will Wednesday publish the photo electoral rolls of the remaining 46 constituencies of the Delhi assembly.” Asked about new voter cards, Bedi said: “The card upgradation process will go on. We will also issue new voter identity cards to those whose names have been included in the voter list for the first time or whose photographs have changed.”

Sonia, Sheila help unauthorised colony residents grab land: BJP

 

Source: Sahara Samay

 

New Delhi, Oct 17: Alleging that distribution of provisional certificates by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to unauthorised colonies were a clear case of contempt of court, BJP demanded framing of criminal cases against the leaders. Delhi BJP President Harsh Vardhan said both Gandhi and Dikshit misled people of unauthorised colonies and helped them in grabbing the public land.

 

“If the Central Government really wanted to provide relief to the people of these colonies then it should have released the land of these colonies in their favour,” he said. In order to get “political mileage”, Gandhi and Dikshit issued provisional certificates to the people of many such colonies which are considered by the Government itself to be on public land. “No person or institution can allot Government land to any private person. Therefore, a case of forgery and helping in grabbing public land can be lodged against Gandhi and Dikshit which is a non-bailable offence,” he said.

 

Jagdamba Colony, Ali Vihar Colony, Ali Extension and a dozen of such colonies are considered by the Central and Delhi Government as constructed on public land, he said. Vardhan further said the Delhi High Court has taken this case seriously. “The court has asked the Delhi Government to reply about issuing provisional certificate to the residents of these colonies,” he said in a statement.

Cong holds meet for finalizing poll manifesto

 

New Delhi, Oct 17 (PTI) With five states set to go for assembly elections in November followed by the Lok Sabha elections, a meeting of Congress’ Central Manifesto Committee was held here today to discuss and decide the finer points of the poll document.

 

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukheree chaired the meeting in which party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi was also present. Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram

go to polls next month while the Lok Sabha polls are scheduled for early next year. Agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan gave inputs to the manifesto committee. It is understood that the party manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections will have new promises for the farm sector.

 

A senior leader said all the stake holders–farmers, labourers, industry along with state level inputs–have been received and all of these would be a part of the party’s manifesto for the polls.