Election Commission likely to announce poll dates for Delhi today
With a series of meetings, the Election Commission on Thursday is likely to announce the dates for Assembly elections in Delhi. According to an official of the Commission, the poll dates in Delhi for the 70-member Delhi Assembly will be decided and the announcement will be made after lunch on Thursday.
"There will be a series of meetings to decide on the poll dates for the 70-member Delhi Assembly and the announcement would be made after lunch on Thursday," the official said.
The term of the current Assembly expires in February 2020.
Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra were present in the first round of the meeting along with other senior officials.
The meeting began at 10 a.m. at the Election Commission office.
Kejriwal announces 24-hour water supply, flags off 100 standard-floor buses
Meanwhile, Kejriwal on Thursday flagged off 100 standard-floor buses in Delhi. The buses are equipped with state-of-the-art features like hydraulic lifts for the differently-abled persons, GPS trackers, panic buttons and CCTV cameras to ensure safety of women.
On Wednesday, Kejriwal had said the AAP government will ensure 24-hour water supply to the people in the national capital in the next five years, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted twice this week the issue of lack of clean drinking water.
Kejriwal said that it would be clean water and people would be able to drink directly from their taps. He was speaking during an event at Kishangarh to inaugurate the underground reservoir with a capacity of 18 lakh litres.
The statement came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the AAP government over the issue. Earlier in the day, Modi said there is dissatisfaction among people in the national capital over "unclean" drinking water, which, he added is a worrisome issue.
Kejriwal presents Aam Aadmi Party's report card
Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday launched a report card of his five years in rule since 2015, describing the top 10 achievements of the government. The report card will be taken to 35 lakh households in the city as a part of a door-to-door campaign, Kejriwal said. The report card is part of the party's campaign for the upcoming Assembly elections. The tenure of Kejriwal will end in February 2020.
Starting from education to health, power, water, budget performance, women safety, unauthorised colonies, transport, pro-people governance and transformational governance, Kejriwal recounted the journey of his government and its "achievements".
The AAP will take this report card to the people through 7 townhall meetings, 700 mohalla sabhas and door-to-door campaign covering all 35 lakh households of Delhi, said party leader Gopal Rai.
Kejriwal said people have elected them to serve and so, it's their responsibility to present a report card.
"The public is at the top of the republic, and people who have been elected by them are for their service. Those in service must present a report card of their work to the people. The people elected us in service five years back, and our term of service of five years is nearing its end. We are presenting our report card to the people of Delhi," said Kejriwal.
He said in the last three years, students from government schools have consistently achieved better results than students of the private schools in class 12.
In the healthcare sector, he said they are working towards providing free and quality healthcare to every citizen of Delhi.
"We have opened more than 400 Mohalla Clinics in Delhi, and have worked towards transforming the infrastructure of all the Delhi Government hospitals," he said.
Kejriwal said Delhi is the only state to have 24-hour power supply and 200 units free in the country.
He said in 5 years, houses receiving tap water increased from 58 per cent to 93 per cent in Delhi.
"Also, Delhi is the only state that provides 20,000 litres of free lifeline water to its people and more than 14 lakh consumers' water bills have reduced to zero."
He said it is very easy to give a speech on unauthorised colonies, but very difficult to work for them on the ground.
"Before we came to power in Delhi, both the opposition parties used to claim that they will work speedily for the regularization and development of the unauthorized colonies for votes. But both the parties have time and again deceived the residents of those colonies. They forgot their promises right after winning elections. We have shown that the development of such colonies is possible, because these colonies are not our vote bank, the people living them are our brothers and sisters. Over Rs. 8,000 crores have been invested in the development of the unauthorized colonies in the last 5 years."
Kejriwal also shared the AAP government's achievements in public transport, women safety, pro-people governance and transformational governance.
He added that in the last few years all the central agencies were behind his government.
"But at last CBI, ED and even Delhi police has given us a clean chit in all cases. In a way, thanks to the opposition forces, we have received a certificate of honesty from all these agencies. Some people are saying that before the election, the CBI may initiate some inquiry again. We welcome every agency and we are ready for any inquiry. We know that we are clean, therefore, we are fearless."
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